Word as Image: The Art of Alexandra Grant features 16: Brushes All Sticky With Words Alexandra Grant ’94 uses art to create her own special “mother tongue.” departments By Carol Brévart-Demm 3: Letters 22: Beyond the Book Readers share their thoughts. Textbook publishers—and authors like profiles Scott Gilbert—get creative to stay afloat. 4: Collection By Carol Brévart-Demm Commencement 2007 and other campus 47: Poet’s Work Soothes highlights the Soul 28: Carved in Stone In verse, Harriet Barrett ’45 ponders Class mottos: Messages from the past 14: Faculty Expert spirituality, love, nature, and adversity. Text by Jeffrey Lott Handel, Messiah, and the Jews By Tina Firesheets Rubbings by Isobel Rubin By Michael Marissen 32: Swarthmore’s First 36: Connections 65: Pet Products Music Major Swarthmoreans reconnect on Trending Tails Up Alumni Weekend Yvette Miller Brown’s [’82] business is During 40 years as “P.D.Q. Bach,” going to the dogs—and cats. Peter Schickele ’57 has laid bare the comic By Audree Penner underside of musical convention. 40: Class Notes Alumni news and views By Paul Wachter ’97 69: See Sanda Fly 45: In Memoriam Sanda Balaban ’94 helps empower New Remembering departed friends and York principals, teachers, and students. classmates By Greg Forbes Siegman 56: Books + Arts The Big Hello and The Long Goodbye by Peter Gessner ’61 Reviewed by Maurice Eldridge ’61 72: In My Life On Rafts on the cover By John Tuthill ’06 Artist Alexandra Grant ’94 in her studio in The Women’s Building in Los Angeles. 80: Q + A Photograph by Tierney Gearon. Story on Braulio Muñoz: Where Can We Go page 16. Without Reason? By Jeffrey Lott opposite Swarthmore’s campus is famous for its stone buildings. The marks of toothed chisels in the arches of the Clothier Hall cloisters are visible in this stone rubbing and photograph by Jeffrey Lott. For more on stone at Swarthmore, see pages 2 and 28. parlor talk

y five-minute walk from the Science Center parking lot to the Publi- cations Office in the Sproul Observatory ends with a stroll through the Clothier Hall cloisters. Before plunging into the day’s work, Swarthmore M C O L L E G E B U L L E T I N I often stop in this Gothic-arched space to marvel at the bell tower soaring above or check on the winter-flowering Chinese witch hazel or the peach-colored rose Editor: Jeffrey Lott (named Polka) that climbs Clothier’s south wall in summer. But it is the magnifi- Associate Editor: Carol Brévart-Demm cence of the cloisters’ stone that holds particular fascination. Class Notes Editor: Susan Cousins Breen In addition to its rolling lawns and towering trees, much of the beauty of Staff Photographer: Eleftherios Kostans Swarthmore’s campus is found in its stone. From flagstone walks to granite steps to Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner sparkling gneissic rock laid up in sturdy walls, the earthy strength of stone tells a Art Director: Suzanne DeMott Gaadt, powerful story about Swarthmore. Beyond their obvious aesthetic appeal, the Col- Gaadt Perspectives LLC lege’s stone buildings speak of the permanence of this enterprise—and of its strong Administrative Assistant: Janice Merrill-Rossi foundation. Publications Interns: Isobel Rubin, The stone for Parrish Hall came from the Leiper Quarry along Crum Creek, just Lena Wong ’10 south of Swarthmore, and was hauled by horse and wagon to the building site. Editor Emerita: (In 1809, Leiper, an immigrant from Strathhaven, Scotland, built the first railway Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 in America to transport his products about two miles to Ridley Creek, where it Contacting Swarthmore College could reach the Delaware River.) It is known as Strathhaven stone, a variant of the College Operator: (610) 328-8000 quartz- and mica-flecked Wissahickon schist that forms the bedrock of the Philadel- www.swarthmore.edu phia area. Admissions: (610) 328-8300 [email protected] BEYOND THEIR OBVIOUS AESTHETIC Alumni Relations: (610) 328-8402 [email protected] APPEAL, STONE BUILDINGS SPEAK OF Publications: (610) 328-8568 [email protected] THE PERMANENCE OF THIS ENTERPRISE— Registrar: (610) 328-8297 AND OF ITS STRONG FOUNDATION. [email protected] World Wide Web Of course, there are some fine Swarthmore buildings of other materials. Beards- www.swarthmore.edu ley Hall (1907) is an early concrete-block building, built in the Palladian style. The Changes of Address former DuPont Science Building—now largely subsumed by the new Science Cen- Send address label along ter—and Willets Hall are typical of the spare institutional style of the 1950s and with new address to: 1960s. But when it could, the College has always favored stone. Alumni Records Office Swarthmore College I have a favorite piece of stone on my walk to work. You can see it on the inside 500 College Avenue cover of this issue—the voussoir on the left side of a cloister arch, immediately Swarthmore PA 19081-1390 above the impost. My rubbing of it reveals the lines of a craftsman’s toothed chisel Phone: (610) 328-8435. Or e-mail: [email protected]. as he shaped this block when Clothier was erected nearly 80 years ago. I often touch this stone as I pass through the cloisters, a kind of mezuzah as I The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume CV, start my day. I think of the mason who dressed and placed this rock and the quarry number 2, is published in August, Sep- worker who wrested it from the earth. Their labor lives on in this quiet place. The tember, December, March, and June, with a special issue in September, by College has had many builders, including determined Quakers who sought a shel- Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, tered education for their children and many visionary scholars and leaders who fol- Swarthmore PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage paid at Swarthmore PA and lowed. All have left the fruits of their labors here. They shared a great idea called additional mailing offices. Permit No. Swarthmore College—and they built it in stone. 0530-620. Postmaster: Send address changes to Swarthmore College Bulletin, —Jeffrey Lott 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1390 ©2007 Swarthmore College Printed in U.S.A. 2 : swarthmore college bulletin letters

“FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS” us is a manifestation of the same creative CHALLENGED force—whatever we choose to call that I understand that your “Letters” section is force. Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philoso- a supplement to the Bulletin and not a pub- phy, in which he elaborates on the similari- lic forum, but Robert Rowley’s [’61] letter in ty of the underlying concepts of all past the March Bulletin is so egregious and ulti- and present philosophical and religious mately so embarrassing for the College’s traditions, would be a worthwhile book to intellectual credentials and its Quaker ori- discuss if this week is repeated on campus. gins that it demands a response. On the other hand, creating and acting Rowley’s letter, mistakenly titled “Fun- on perceptions of “difference” has been the damental Truths,” is a virtual catalogue of cause of so much grief and often leads to faulty argument, to wit: state the obvious invidious discrimination. In this regard, (“we are at war”); use a fuzzy generality religions have, alas, historically often given (“democracy implies responsibility”); find a us some prime examples of the evils associ- false historical parallel (“does the name ated with creating difference—the Cru- Neville Chamberlain mean anything to sades, for example, or the Inquisition. Even anyone?”); propose a highly debatable some Quakers, who profess to believe that Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of proposition that is entirely inapplicable to there is something of the Light in every Avila, and John of the Cross. Some of the our present situation in Iraq (“sometimes person, are capable of discrimination more contemporary great minds include war is the only route to peace”); and against non-Quakers at times. If the G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, John Paul II rationalize a tragically mistaken course of human race is to survive, we must get and Thomas Merton. I can understand an action with a personal loss (“I am still beyond this. atheist or agnostic who has tasted the writ- hopeful that my son-in-law’s death on 9/11 Studying diverse religions as well as ings of these great intellects and still was not in vain”). forms of nonreligious spirituality with an declines to seek further. I cannot under- HENRY BASSIN ’57 open mind can only lead to better under- stand one who has little or no knowledge Solsberry, Ind. standing in the world. The Rev. Joyce of them and yet declines. Tompkins and her colleagues are to be con- ROGER KARNY ’76 A DISTINCTION gratulated for initiating this program. It is Denver WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE an incredibly worthwhile way to spend a I was delighted to read about Religion and week. I really hope it becomes an annual NO BLOODTHIRSTY Spirituality on Campus Week in the June event. XENOPHOBES Bulletin. BOB FREEDMAN ’58 Diane Levine Umemoto ’65 (“Home Most serious problems that the world New York City Abroad,” March Bulletin) is mistaken when faces involving human interaction come she says, “For most Americans, people in from seeing difference where we should be A BALANCE OF MIND, the rest of the world … are non-people, too seeing similarity—of failing to understand, SPIRIT, AND BODY alien to relate to.” She continues by imply- as the ancient philosophers said, that “we I was thrilled to read “A Taste of Spirituali- ing that those of us living in the United need to see each person as not other than ty” (June 2007 Bulletin), to see that faith States are not as concerned about Ameri- our Self.” We all believe something—even and God are making a comeback on cam- ca’s role beyond our borders. Although it’s atheists believe something, often more pus after many of us in the 1960s and undoubtedly true that some Americans fall strongly than even those of us who chose 1970s declared God dead. A total person is into the group Umemoto describes, lump- to follow an organized religion. What we a balance of mind, spirit and body. The ing us all together as bloodthirsty xeno- believe simply distinguishes us from each article quoted Hoa Pham as saying that he phobes does a great disservice to the varied other, just as what we wear for clothing or believes most Swarthmoreans, as people of beliefs of our citizens. Considering that what baseball team we root for is a distinc- intellect, are their own support and have many expatriates who echo her refrain have tion. Without such distinctions, this would no need, in essence, for God. My question not lived in the United States for several be an incredibly boring world. (Imagine a is: What do you do when you reach your years, they can hardly be taken as experts Swarthmore College peopled by individuals limits and have exhausted all other on what Americans believe. who agreed totally about every aspect of resources? I believe each of us has or will At this moment, our country is divided their lives.) come to that point eventually. right up the middle politically. There are no In law school, we learned the phrase “a The concepts of faith and religion have “prevailing” views: our president’s party distinction without a difference.” In my occupied some of the world’s greatest represents one side of the debate, and the view, such distinctions are just that. The minds for thousands of years. How can one party in control of our Congress represents underlying similarities are often hidden by say their lives and writings are irrelevant? the other. Then there are those of us who our failing to understand that each one of Some examples from earlier centuries are Please turn to page 78.

september 2007 : 3 collection Commencement 2007

O U T R E A C H O V E R CO N F R O N TAT I O N : Commencement Address by President Alfred H. Bloom

I would like you to consider briefly with me the readiness of so many to move to confrontation in the face of challenges stemming from difference. In 1995, I led a small delegation from U.S. Quaker-affiliated educational institu- tions to North Korea. Over the week there, our relationship to the educators and highly placed government officials we had come to meet steadily evolved from polite colleague- ship to genuine human connection. As each day passed, both sides felt freer to talk about our personal and professional lives, freer to indulge in warm and playful humor, and freer to ask the questions we really Photographs by Eleftherios Kostans and Stuart Watson wanted to ask. And well before the end of the visit, we knew that, although there were still questions not fully answered, we could trust the sincerity of the answers we did Menacing clouds hanging over twice. “We cannot foresee everything,” receive. the Scott Amphitheater on the Bloom joked, to loud applause. A year later, several of the officials we morning of June 3 failed to darken the spir- In addition to conferring degrees on the had met in Pyongyang came to campus, as its of the 348 graduating seniors who were Class of ’07, Bloom awarded honorary part of a North Korean mission to the Unit- gathered there for the College’s 135th Com- degrees to Marcia A. Grant ’60, an educator ed States. The conversations resumed as if mencement ceremony. As the overflowing and founding dean of the first liberal arts without a break, or perhaps because of the amphitheater shook with the cheers of par- college for women in Saudi Arabia; Robert perspective offered by the break, with even ents, friends, and faculty and staff members, Parris Moses, a civil rights leader and greater openness than before. We discussed the seniors slow-marched to their seats, each founder of the Algebra Project; and Robert candidly the stereotypes we had brought to swaying gown brightened by a single freshly Prichard ’71, the president and CEO of our first encounter and the prejudices and cut rose, chosen minutes earlier from the Torstar Corporation and former president fears that would have to be overcome for Dean Bond Rose Garden. Their procession of the University of Toronto. The senior Please turn to page 6 was accompanied by a stunning perform- speaker, chosen by her classmates, was ance—including a trumpet solo whose Eva Holman. sweet, magical tones soared above the tulip One day earlier, Centennial Professor of poplars—of the African American spiritual Anthropology and Director of the Lang Cen- “Down in the River To Pray,” arranged and ter for Civic and Social Responsibility Jennie conducted by Associate Professor of Music Keith had spoken to the class at Baccalaure- John Alston. ate services, followed by former dean Robert The instant President Alfred H. Bloom “Bob” Gross ’62, who delivered the Last Col- approached the podium to welcome those lection address. Both speakers were, in present, the fire horn atop the College’s heat accordance with tradition, chosen by the plant pronounced its own eerie greeting senior class. with all-too-familiar repeated triple blasts— —Carol Brévart-Demm

4 : swarthmore college bulletin Marcia Grant ’60, who received an hon- Robert Parris Moses, who received an J. Robert Prichard ’71, who received an orary Doctor of Laws degree, has had honorary Doctor of Science degree, has honorary Doctor of Laws degree, is presi- careers in academe and the foreign serv- been a civil rights activist for more than dent and chief executive officer of ice. Passionate about promoting women four decades. A 1982 recipient of the Torstar Corporation, a leading Canadian in their education and careers, she cred- MacArthur “Genius” Grant, he is the media company whose two principal its Swarthmore for equipping her to take founder and president of the Algebra businesses are newspapers, including the on the challenge in 1999 of starting Effat Project, a mathematics program that Toronto Star, and book publishing. He is College, a liberal arts college for women, helps low-income students and students president emeritus of the University of in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She traces her of color—particularly African American Toronto, where he served for 10 years. role in the creation of the college back to and Latino/a students—achieve the math a simple thank-you note to Princess skills they need to perform successfully “Don’t feel compelled to follow a straight Lolowah al-Faisal after the original pro- in today’s technology-driven society. line or conform to anyone else’s plan,” he posal for the college was rejected. Only told the graduating class. “Much of what is after she included her vision for the col- “Doing voter registration in the 1960s was best in life will be found in the detours, the lege in her thank-you note did she learn not radical per se,” he said. “Taking sit-in zigs and zags. This is where I learned the that the first proposal had been turned movement insurgencies, nemeses of Jim- most and found what mattered most to me, down because of its complex legal jar- Crow, into 1960s Mississippi; doing voter what I cared about and what I believed. It gon. Currently, Grant is helping to plan a registration to gain political access for Delta was trying new things, exploring and exper- faculty of arts and sciences for a new lib- sharecroppers was. Getting down to and imenting, that fueled this voyage of discov- eral arts college at the Aga Khan Univer- understanding the root cause of Jim-Crow, ery. And don’t think you need to start at the sity in Karachi, Pakistan. facing it and devising means to uproot it, front of the pack to succeed. was radical—Ella Baker ‘radical.’ Easier said “Care most to protect the right of dissent “Starting at Swarthmore as a political sci- than done, as is getting down to who we are and to support the voices of change. ence major,” she told the Commencement as a nation of constitutional people. Under- “I have devoted my career to two causes: crowd, “I have learned to value academic standing that Africans in America, after higher education and a free press. The com- freedom, the thrill of ideas, the challenge of 1787, were reborn as constitutional property. mon theme has been the centrality of ideas friendships across cultures, finding in the That, after the Civil War—under sharecrop- and fundamental freedoms—academic free- connectedness of this whole global society ping and sharecropper education, driven, dom and freedom of the press. A recurring wonderful people who share enthusiasm always down, by Jim-Crow—African Ameri- lesson for me in both these arenas has been and optimism. What I have come to under- cans evolved as constitutional strangers the ubiquity of threats to these freedoms. stand about myself, personally, is that I like until sit-in insurgents, nemeses of Jim- Recent concerns about terrorism have only to keep my learning curve steep. Crow, occupied seats as constitutional peo- magnified these threats. The threats always “So what I wish for you are three things: ple at, of all places, Woolworth’s five and 10 come cloaked in the guise of some compet- That you take the risk of making real the cents lunch counters. ing good, but whatever the argument ideas and dreams that you have in your “In these historical footsteps, the Alge- advanced by those who wish to constrain heads; that you ask the help of your friends bra Project with the Young People’s Project our freedoms, I urge you to be skeptical and and families in making them happen; and stride as 21st-century math insurgents, to defend the eternal power of the freedom that you, too, keep your learning curves occupying seats as constitutional people, as of ideas. Swarthmore College has been stal- steep! And, as you embark on this next school math insurgents, nemeses of the wart and courageous in its defense of these chapter of risk taking, learning, and explo- nation’s legacies of sharecropper education. freedoms. You must be, too, if you are to ration—don’t forget to write your thank-you Join our education insurgency. Teach math preserve and expand the full possibilities of notes.” with us in the New Orleans public schools.” a free society.”

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our nations and populations to develop mutual trust. We took great satisfaction in the surprisingly warm and relaxed personal connections we had come to enjoy. And, most importantly, we recognized an unanticipated convergence in personal commitment to shaping more just and humane societies and a more cooperative world, all the while acknowledging differ- ences in the obstacles on our nations’ respective paths and differences in our con- ceptions of the ideal society. In 2002, the United States identified North Korea as a member of the Axis of Evil, beyond the reach of initiatives of trust and candor. Confrontation supplanted dia- logue. And that, in my opinion ill-con- ceived, too ready and perilous shift—from outreach to confrontation—with its impli- cations not only for international relations, but for all human interactions, prompts my remarks to you, the Class of 2007. I F T H E R E I S A C H A N C E F O R O U T R E A C H TO S U CC E E D, G R E AT E R M O R A L S T R E N GT H L I E S I N P E R S I S T I N G I N T H E S E A R C H F O R CO M M O N G R O U N D. As each of you assumes leadership of this century’s professions, institutions, cor- porations, communities, and societies you will constantly face the challenge of cross- ing differences of personality, experience, perspective and conviction. And when those differences become complicated by threats to security, resources, status, or pride, that leadership will be put to a severe test. But it is then that the ability to bridge differences that you have cultivated here will become crucial to forging the shared understanding and purpose that enable intellectual advance, institutional and corporate accom- plishment, societal justice and international progress and peace. Far too often in the attempt to cross dif- ference, as perceptions of unfairness and risk intensify, willingness to listen, rather than redoubling, shuts down. Faith in the other as a human being capable of respond- ing to initiatives of trust and care, capable

6 : swarthmore college bulletin of achieving an objective view, capable of engaging in collaborative exploration dis- solves, to be replaced by a construction of the other, as so blinded by personal or ideo- logical agenda, so devoid of breadth of con- cern and complexity of perspective, so lack- ing in moral compass, as to be incapable of joining in a mutual search for common ground. What might have been a partnership devolves into a power struggle in a zero- sum game. Labels, accusations, and threats multiply, aggravated by assertive and retal- iatory behavior, further heightening risk, entrenching the discount by each side of the humanity of the other, allowing convic- tion and emotion to increasingly suppress concern for evidence and truth, and, most dangerously, making violence appear a more legitimate and righteous response. Throughout your lives, you have watched this scenario, playing out in individual rela- tionships, in intergroup interactions, as well as in international conflict, and you’re acutely aware of the damage, if not devasta- tion, that so often results. Of course, there are times when respon- sibility demands confrontation, for exam- ple, in the face of intolerable conditions or risks, such as violent criminality, Nazi aggression or terrorism, or in the face of rejection of persistent demands for justice, such as in the American Revolution or Mar- tin Luther King’s non-violent, though con- frontational, struggle. But I am convinced that there are many more times when a too ready shift to con- frontation pre-empts outreach, with major opportunities for bridging differences lost. And I am further convinced that that too ready shift to confrontation is particularly driven by three pernicious, but surmount- able conditions: the first, a climate that interprets adopting a muscular stance as the measure of moral strength, especially when the going gets tough; the second, a tendency, incompatible with current reali- ties, to overestimate the power of asserting power; and the third, an alarming lack of experience with crossing human divides— an inexperience which makes those divides appear much more formidable than they are and often undercuts the ability of leaders even to imagine crossing them. But these three conditions, your Swarth- more experience has fitted you to overcome! Please turn to page 8

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rationale. And, in what is acceptable and right, without loss of welcome con- pride or advantage. trast, you have These habits and that skill, basic to effec- experienced in tive seminars, to intellectual communities, this community, and to the search for truth, are likewise the the quality, very means for forging shared understand- shared owner- ing and purpose on that foundation of ship, and endur- human commonality you recognize is there. ing nature of So I call on you, who not only recognize decisions reached the universal foundation for human collabo- through inclusive ration but also have the habits and skill to processes, build a collaborative world upon that foun- anchored in our dation, to hold out—whenever you respon- Quaker tradition. sibly can and for as long as you responsibly So I call on can—for outreach over confrontation, to you to remember, refuse to let even a moment of asserting and remind oth- power tip the balance from potential part- As soon-to-be Swarthmore graduates ers, not to overestimate what confrontation nership into a downward spiraling, zero- you have developed, as a component of your and asserting power buy today. sum game. ethical intelligence, your own capacity to As soon-to-be Swarthmore graduates, As we look ahead, how likely are we to define moral strength. through the breadth of your academic work build the cohesion that enables collective Despite a climate in which confronting and your own personal engagement across accomplishment within families, institu- adversaries, with power, is often the sign of the rich diversity of this and other commu- tions, corporate enterprises and societies moral strength, and reaching out to them nities, you have come to recognize that without honoring expectations for respect the mark of moral weakness, I would argue desires for security, well-being, recognition, and inclusion? How likely are we to heal that, if there is a chance for outreach to suc- opportunity, justice and cooperative resolu- rifts between the West and the Islamic ceed, greater moral strength lies in persist- tion reliably transcend human divides. That world without creating contexts that sup- ing in the search for common ground. And recognition leads you to seek, and to find, port the adjustments in perspective on both when engaging the perspective of an adver- virtues in individuals whom others write off, sides that generate shared vision? How like- sary persuades you to adjust your own view passions for justice among advocates whose ly are we to achieve a lasting peace in North of what is right, I would argue that it is not motivation others discount as self-interest, Korea without dialogue enriched by the can- capitulation, concession, or naiveté, but an heterogeneity in populations that others dor and care I experienced 12 years ago in even stronger reflection of moral strength, condemn as monoliths of hatred and evil. Pyongyang? How likely are we to repair to affirm and act on that adjusted sense of And that recognition also gives you the con- America’s image as a genuine leader of the right. fidence others so often lack, that a founda- world without projecting confidence in the If you agree, I call on you to lead others tion for building common ground lies transformative power of outreach? How to redefine the concept “moral strength,” so beneath even the most formidable divides. likely are we to address the universal con- that being morally strong does not equate Furthermore, through your academic and cerns of poverty, human rights, the environ- with unilateral assertion of right and power, community experience here you have devel- ment, security and peace if we abandon but more often with the courage to resist oped the habits of listening, of extending a faith in the humanity of those with whom pressure to adopt a muscular stance. respect that builds respect, of investing trust we must deal? As soon-to-be Swarthmore graduates, that inspires trust, of supporting others in Given who you are, your independent you know how counterproductive the results the expression of their insights and convic- understanding of moral strength, your of asserting power tend to be in a world tions, and of stretching to understand as awareness of what confrontation and the whose population has, at every level, come fully and as disinterestedly as you can the assertion of power cannot buy, your recogni- to expect, and demand, respect and inclusion. other’s point of view. You have also devel- tion of the foundations of human common- You have compared the consequences of oped the habit and the skill to reconcile the ality and remarkable ability to build upon it, the Treaty of Versailles with those of the other’s view with your own, through clarify- and your experience of a community that Marshall Plan. You have examined the costs ing where perspectives and convictions con- seeks outreach over confrontation, I ask of exclusion from the decision-making of verge and delineating the differences that you, on whatever path you take, whenever institutions and societies and witnessed the remain. Together these habits and that skill you responsibly can, turn from confronta- resentment, resistance and short-lived solu- enable you to create emotionally and intel- tion, reach for and inspire others to reach tions that result. You have seen, in the inter- lectually safe space where differences in per- for our shared humanity. I could not be national arena, the peril associated with ception and conviction can be made clear more confident in the leadership you will imposing one’s own will on others, no mat- and where either side convinced in part or each bring to this, the most important chal- ter how rooted in humanity and justice the whole by the other can adjust its view of lenge of our time. T

8 : swarthmore college bulletin A little girl sits on in to clean up dorm rooms, picked, emptying tables, the floor of the followed by Macri and shortening rows, and College’s Lamb-Miller Field Isakowitz with several other shrinking piles. The prices House, her back against a volunteers. For days, they of most articles ranged jumbled pile of goods, collected, sorted, and, in a from 50 cents to $20. With including an upholstered miracle of organization, arms, boxes, beer crates, cushion, pillows, a feather displayed the thousands of and, in one case, a wheel- bed, bags stuffed with items from their impressive barrow filled with bargains, clothing, a couple of lamps, trove neatly on tables, shoppers lined up at the ʼ 67

TT and more. Resting her feet racks, and in rows in the checkout to pay the over- on a skateboard, she says large field house space. whelmed but delighted

GOLDBLA she’s guarding the pile Although other colleges volunteers. while her mom continues to have held similar sales, this Some who arrived at the

STEVEN browse. Nearby, zealous was Swarthmore’s first, and actual start time of 4 p.m. were disappointed. “I came one person’s trash is . . . for a fridge,” said Pat AN AFTERLIFE FOR THE

shoppers—anxious to land a bargain—rapidly disman- tle a wall of 41 mini-fridges, which are priced between $5 and $20 each. Others fall Bender upon the 300 three-ring UIRER

binders; 500 or so pairs of INQ women’s and men’s shoes; Oak 47 waste baskets; 147 pole, ! desk, and clip-on lamps; 48 PHILADELPHIA fans; 30 computer printers; According to tree experts, the massive 20 computer monitors; 30 Quercus x benderi east of the Faulkner full-length mirrors; six COSTELLO/

Tennis Courts witnessed the founding microwaves; 30 large and 47 JOHN of Swarthmore in 1864, but the Col- small rugs; as well as count- Juliana Macri and Marina lege will have to go on without the less kettles, coffee pots, and the organizers had no idea Isakowitz take a break massive old oak. Well, almost. vases; racks and tables full whether it would be a suc- from setting up for the Although its dying limbs were of brand-name dresses, cess. They need not have big sale. amputated on August 15, the tree’s sweaters, and T-shirts; worried. remaining trunk—which measures couches; chairs; tables— Publicized in The Swarth- Coyne, administrative coor- some 19 feet in circumference—will and endless other articles morean and The Philadelphia dinator in the Dean’s become a wood sculpture. left behind by students Inquirer, the sale ran from 4 Office, “but they’re all Variously estimated to be between unable or unwilling to take to 8 p.m. on Friday and gone.” 150 and 300 years old, the natural them home at the end of from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on “I was amazed at how hybrid tree has been in significant the academic year. Saturday. For an extra $5, much we were able to sell,” decline in recent years. The Scott This was the scene of die-hard tag-sale shoppers said Macri, “although every- Arboretum worked to preserve the the College’s first Trash 2 could buy their way in early, thing we collected was of tree, cabling and pruning it, but the Treasure Sale on June 15 at 3 p.m. on Friday, to get a high quality, so we had remaining branches were recently and 16, organized by jun- head start. By 3:05 p.m., a good stuff to work with. It deemed unsafe. iors Juliana Macri and tidal wave of customers had felt great after all the work In January, renowned wood carver Marina Isakowitz. Rather flooded the field house. and time we put in to see Marty Long will transform the stump than see the wealth of still Armed with maps showing how enthusiastic everyone into sculpture with an oak-leaf and usable items go to waste, them the quickest routes was.” acorn motif, extending the tree’s life they decided to sell them from belts to bedding, tank- The sale reaped a total of beyond its deciduous years. “We’re and donate the profits to tops to toys, furniture to $12,317.14, which will go to turning a problem into an opportunity,” charity. fans, computers to kettles, the Chester Education says Claire Sawyers, director of the As students left for the rainwear to refrigerators, Fund and the Chester East- arboretum. summer, environmental and lamps to loungewear, side Ministries. —Jeffrey Lott services employees moved they poked, prodded, and —Carol Brévart-Demm

september 2007 : 9 collection

into tissue that—facilitated by a type of protein called resilin—is flexible. Others are rigid. Professor of Biology Rachel Merz, Donoughe’s adviser, points out the many scratches on the double- layered wing membrane. “It really gives you a strong sense that these wings have had a hard life,” she says. For three weeks this summer, Crall joined Donoughe to film dragonflies in flight with a high-speed camera, enabling them to observe the subtleties of wing shape during flight. For tests to iden- tify the properties of individual joints, they “adapted a technique that Rachel has used in past research,” Donoughe says. During the semester, Donoughe, Crall, and Christmas created a map of the wing, using red and blue points to show which joints flex from the top and which from the bottom, “like hinges,” Those (Not So) Lazy Donoughe says. “Mapping the joint distribution this way is an original contribu- tion of these students,” Merz says. “It gives an exciting perspective DONOUGHE on the dynamic shape changes possible in the wing during flight.”

Days of Summer SETH They plan to present their results at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology conference in San Antonio in January 2008. This summer, 236 students—their thirst for knowledge still not quenched by the rigors of the Swarthmore academic year—pursued summer LANGUAGE RESCUE research projects in their chosen fields, funded by various grants and schol- arships in amounts ranging from $800 to $3,750. More than 100 of them Honors linguistics major Miranda Weinberg ’09 joined Assistant remained on campus. Hidden in labs, studios, classrooms, libraries, and Professor of Linguistics David Harrison this summer to work on a offices, they immersed themselves in topics they’re passionate about, spend- model to identify languages that are in danger of dying out. Named ing much one-on-one time with their professors and much time alone. “Language Hotspots,” the model is an ongoing collaborative project Some produced results that will be published in scholarly journals or pre- between the nonprofit Living Tongues Institute for Endangered sented at conferences. Read about four of them here. Languages, which Harrison co-founded, and National Geographic. “Language hotspots are the areas with the greatest levels of lin- WHEN BIG BUGS BAT THEIR WINGS guistic diversity worldwide and the highest concentrations of endangered languages,” explains Harrison. Many a hazy summer day finds biology major Seth Donoughe ’08 Of the world’s 7,000 living languages, about half of them are wading in the Crum, wielding a huge net, hunting dragonflies and predicted to become extinct by the end of the 21st century, Weinberg damselflies. Donoughe—continuing a recent group seminar project says. Found in regions of the world with many different languages started by himself, James Crall ’07, and Patrick Christmas ’08—is belonging to widely varying language families, most have only few researching the functional morphology of dragonfly wings to see speakers to pass them on to succeeding generations. And most have how the wings bend and change shape during flight. not yet been adequately studied or documented. “They have no writ- Descendants of a lineage dating back to the Carboniferous Age, ing system,” Weinberg says. “so once the last speaker dies, the lan- dragonflies were the first aerial predators, Donoughe says, so they guage dies, too.” needed to be well coordinated for hovering, diving, and catching Part of the project, she says, includes expeditions to meet with their prey on the wing. “Much research exists on how dragonflies speakers of endangered languages and document, record, and film move their wings and how insects fly, but the question of how the them. Harrison is wing itself bends is new,” he says. To observe and obtain images of spending part of STUART WATSON the wings and measure their flexural stiff- STUART WATSON ness, he used a scanning electron micro- scope, access to which was facilitated by biologist John Weisel ’68 at the University of Pennsylvania, and the College’s confocal microscope to produce three-dimensional projections of the wing joints. On the highly magnified images, Donoughe points out large veins connect- ed by cross veins running through gos- samer-like wing membrane. Many of the hundreds of cross veins taper at the point Seth Donoughe and James Crall hunt Miranda Weinberg helps provide David of connection to the main vein, merging for research specimens in the Crum. Harrison with data for a field trip.

10 : swarthmore college bulletin the summer in northern Australia, where, Weinberg adds, there are atmosphere (above 85 kilometers). “hundreds of undocumented languages.” Although not an expedi- Early in the summer, the students created similar collisions using tion participant herself, she helped prepare Harrison for the trip, atoms and molecules of bromine (Br2) gas with other atoms and collecting data from field reports of anthropologists and linguists as molecules, to identify how those collisions affect electronic energy. well as from census statistics and Internet resources. The students are enthusiastic about performing groundbreaking Weinberg’s main role has been to compile material for the pro- research. “It’s a real challenge to do something that’s never been ject’s Web site. After meeting early in the summer with other project done before,” Massey says. La Porte adds: “There’s nobody to call participants in Washington, D.C., she wrote a project description, when something doesn’t work. When you’re setting something up, an introduction to endangered languages, facts on each hotspot, and you have a large set of things that need to be adjusted, if they’re trivia about the languages, and a glossary of technical terms. not all adjusted just right, you get nothing—but that’s what makes “Trying to make linguistics—not a very media-friendly field— it all the more rewarding when you do get spikes on the graph.” accessible to people who have never thought of studying language Stephenson and the students will use the collected data to com- (as opposed to a language) was quite a challenge,” Weinberg says. pile a paper for publication in a scientific journal. La Porte, an hon- “Some of my work included taking grant applications—the only ors student, will continue the project throughout his senior year. written descriptions of the project—and translating them into more concise, gripping language appropriate for a Web site. I hope that FOCUS ON SCULPTURE the site and the project will not only introduce the broader public to the issue of language endangerment but also encourage people to Sara Haley ’08, a fine arts major, loves “getting paid to spend the think about language itself.” summer doing art.” Focusing on sculpture, she is exploring the topic A feature on endangered languages, including a map compiled “Woman and Family: A Personal Exploration Through Portraiture” for the project showing language hotspots worldwide, will appear in by creating clay busts of her grandmother, mother, and herself. After the October issue of National Geographic accompanied by a link to researching feminist theory, female artists, and the ways that women the Web site (www.languagehotspots.org). are represented in art, she decided to take a personal approach by rendering three generations of female family members in clay. WHEN ATOMS AND MOLECULES COLLIDE Haley, who loves having clay beneath her fingernails, says: “I feel really comfortable working in that medium. It’s free, fluid, and that’s Senior chemistry majors Nathan La Porte and Justin Massey are my style of working—a very natural approach to sculpting.” attempting to help unravel some of the mysteries of atmospheric Once the family members’ busts are finished, she will attempt chemistry by causing collisions between atoms and molecules. some “very quick, one-sitting busts” of her apartment mates. “One of the most important events that occurs in chemistry is Haley’s adviser, Professor of Studio Art Brian Meunier, says: “The the collision of atoms and molecules—in the gas phase or in solu- fact that Sarah chose to work with female relatives impressed me. tion,” explains James H. Hammons Professor of Chemistry Tom They look very much like her, but they’re at different ages, with dif- Stephenson, their adviser. “It has been well documented from satel- ferent variables and types. An artist can learn a lot from working on lite studies and measurements carried out from the space shuttle a series. It’s a controlled experiment. The control is their genetic that oxygen (O) atoms collide with nitric oxide (NO) molecules in type, and then you have the variables. It’s difficult to discover the the upper part of the atmosphere and that these collisions perturb differences and unique aspects in people who look similar. A num- the distribution of energy within the nitric oxide molecule.” The ber of psychological aspects also affect the project because of the goal is to reproduce these collisions in the laboratory and, using close relationship she has with her mother and grandmother.” laser-induced fluorescence, examine how they affect nitric oxide. Haley, a California native, works from photos of her mother and Stephenson believes that their results will be of interest to scien- grandmother. She agrees that the challenge lies in capturing the tists who develop models of energy flow in the atmosphere because right physical and emotional mix . “At the physical level,” she says, O + NO collisions are important for “I’ve spent years looking at their determining energy flow in the upper ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS faces—I know them, but thinking of

STUART WATSON the emotional attachment changes how I see them.” Meunier sees a challenge in that Haley is working on bust portraiture, a genre with a clearly defined image in western art. “It’s difficult to be both accurate in representation yet add that little nuance that makes it her own style. But I’m already starting to get a sense of Sarah through her art. It will be really interesting to see how she Sara Haley refines the clay busts she is creat- refines that this year.” Nathan LaPorte, Justin Massey, and ing of her mother, grandmother, and herself. Tom Stephenson adjust the laser. —Carol Brévart-Demm

september 2007 : 11 collection M e n t o r s f o r M i n d ʼ 88

REEVES a n d KEITH OF

TESY S p i r i t COUR

In August at his home in Purchase, N.Y., Richard Rubin, part- Recent program participant Danielle Toaltoan ’07 took on two time professor of political science and public policy (second internships—one with the American Bar Foundation and another from right), hosted a gathering of alumni he has mentored— with Foley, her alumnus mentor and a U.S. tax court judge, who had (left to right) Gordon Govens ’85, Keith Reeves ’88, Thomas benefited from Rubin’s guidance after a shaky start at the College. Burton ’85, Maurice Foley ’82, and Steve Howard. A new “The focus of my internship [with Judge Foley] was less on work student mentoring program has been named in Rubin’s honor. than on developing a relationship with him. We had breakfast and lunch together, and I went to New York to see him perform in the Perhaps life is really a series of highways courtroom,” Toaltoan said. Foley also offered to sponsor Toaltoan’s filled with forks in the road—high roads, low roads, private LSAT tutoring. His willingness to help, paired with Toal- toan’s relationship with on-campus mentor Assistant Dean and and roads less traveled. It makes sense, then, that we need mentors Gender Education Adviser Karen Henry ’87 has provided her with to give us direction, help us find our bearings when we feel lost. For an unfaltering support system. “They give me no chance to doubt four former students—Maurice Foley ’82, Gordon Govens ’85, myself,” she said. “[Karen] always makes sure I’m doing OK; she’s Keith Reeves ’88, and Philip Weiser ’90—that mentor was part-time like a mother to me.” Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Richard Rubin. In For Govens, whose mother passed away during his freshman 2004, they started the Richard Rubin Scholars Mentoring Program year of college, Rubin was much more than just a professor in whom to institutionalize similar guidance for current and future genera- he could confide. “Some people have mentors in their family, but a tions of Swarthmore students. college mentor takes on a role as a parent for those without some- Rubin’s four former students donated the seed money to start the one to bounce ideas off of,” he says. Govens, 44, says he still seeks program, and Rubin himself also contributed a substantial amount Rubin’s advice. to the cause. With the help of Vice President for Alumni and Devel- “The mentoring program supplements the college's academic opment Dan West, the program became a reality. The first group of advising. The academic advisor’s role is to provide information to students was chosen at the end of the 2004–2005 academic year. students on how best to use the curriculum when selecting courses The program, Rubin says, aims to provide guidance to students and thinking about a possible course major. A Rubin mentor supple- from backgrounds that sometimes lack important links and advice ments academic advising by helping students learn how to navigate counseling due to economic or social circumstances. Students in the the College—such as connecting with faculty, accessing academic program are provided with mentors from the College faculty or staff support, balancing social and academic demands, overcoming some and, from their sophomore year on, may benefit from further men- of the social and psychological barriers they might encounter, and toring and participation in paid internships hosted by alumni in understanding the transition issues associated with leaving home established careers. Separate from Career Services, the program has and starting college,” says Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs its own database of internships and mentors. Program participants Darryl Smaw, who also serves as director of the program. are either nominated by faculty or staff members with whom they Currently, the program seeks to increase the number of mentors already have mentoring relationships, or they may self-nominate and students within each annual group as well as the number of and request campus mentors from among the faculty and staff. alumni willing to share their careers with students interested in “We’re advising them not just in courses but also in life,” Rubin their fields but lacking access to them. says. “Students coming into Swarthmore have many ideas of what “There’s no manual to show you how to navigate those unknown they want to do, and it’s a valuable tool to get to know someone who waters,” Govens said, “That’s what a mentor is for.” can angle you for the different possibilities after Swarthmore.” —Lena Wong ’10

12 : swarthmore college bulletin CMlassoidcern Jane Lang Professor of Music Gerald Levin- son jokes that his most recent composition Toward Light—written last year for the Philadelphia Orchestra and the inaugura- tion of the new organ in Verizon Hall— attracts attention by the volume of sound it creates. LEVINSON ALEN

“It’s probably my loudest piece,” he says. V

Loud enough, in fact, to reach the ears of ARI the Pew Fellowship Program selection panel members, who selected Levinson this spring more than once for the fellowship, awarded Gerald Levinson rehearses in Philadel- to be honored with a coveted Pew Fellow- in each discipline only every four years. phia’s Verizon Hall before helping to ship in the Arts. The Fellowship includes a “This year, my work stands out as the only inaugurate its new pipe organ with one $50,000 unrestricted grant. fully notated music intended for the tradi- of his compositions. He recently won a Recognizing the achievements of out- tional media of the concert hall.” competitive Pew Fellowship in the Arts. standing Philadelphia-area artists who have Other notable compositions by Levinson demonstrated their commitment to their include Anahata (Symphony No. 1); Black uninterrupted creative work until his next fields, the fellowships, established in 1991 Magic/White Magic, a collaboration with his sabbatical leave, he says, “I expect to use by the Pew Charitable Trusts, allow them wife, poet Nanine Valen; and several works this grant to support that leave. Also, I may the freedom to concentrate for an extended for the College’s ensemble-in-residence, have occasion to travel to France next sum- time on their work and explore it more fully. Orchestra 2001, which recently released mer for a performance at a festival and to “It’s a wonderful honor to be included two CDs of his music. work with the organist for whom I’m writ- among the distinguished and amazingly Although, as chairman of the Depart- ing my next piece, and the Fellowship may diverse artists who have been part of this ment of Music for the next two years, Levin- support that trip as well.” program,” says Levinson, who has applied son will be unable to devote himself to —Carol Brévart-Demm Potter and Penn: Quaker Sympathies? When Christopher Densmore, curator of along with the journals of Benjamin Franklin the Friends Historical Library, opened the (1706–1790) and (Quaker) John Woolman new and final volume of J.K. Rowling’s (1720–1772). saga Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, “Although Harry Potter literally (if one can use he found the narrative preceded by two that term for a fictional character) takes up the quotations—one from Aeschylus and the sword, where the Quaker William Penn (figuratively) other from that arch-Quaker, William Penn put down the sword, there seems to be much in the (1644–1718). ethical positions of Potter and Penn that would “The idea that even a little bit of William seem to be in sympathy, such as: ‘A good end Penn’s writing was being disseminated with cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we millions of copies of the latest Harry Potter ever do evil, that good may come of it’ book is gratifying,” wrote Densmore in an (Fruits, 537) and ‘Force may subdue, but e-mail to the campus community in July. He continued: love gains.’” (Fruits, 546). “The quotation ‘Death is but crossing the world, as “The full text of Penn’s books are, of friends do the seas’ is from Penn’s More Fruits of Soli- course, available at Friends Historical tude (1702), a book of aphorisms that was a sequel to Library, but the text is still in print (I rec- his earlier Fruits of Solitude (1693). The two works have ommend the edition that is included with been reprinted many times in the past three centuries. They Penn’s Peace of Europe) and also on-line.” were even included in the first volume of the Harvard Classics —Jeffrey Lott

september 2007 : 13 faculty expert Handel, Messiah, and the Jews

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’S MOST FAMOUS WORK CAN BE SEEN AS PART OF A RELIGIOUS BACKLASH AGAINST JEWS AND OTHER “NONBELIEVERS.”

By Michael Marissen, Daniel Underhill Professor of Music

subjects (such as Israel in Egypt) most grievous enemies of their religion, they he was pro-Jewish. Handel and came to suppose that deists obtained anti- his contemporaries did have a Christian ammunition from rabbinical high opinion of the characters scholars. Anglican Bishop Richard Kidder populating the Hebrew Bible, (1633–1703), for example, claimed in his not as “Jews” but rather as proto- huge 1690s treatise on Jesus as messiah Christian believers in God’s that “the [d]eists among us, who would run expected Messiah, Jesus. On the down our revealed religion, are but under- subject of living Jews and Judaism workmen to the Jews.” after the advent of Jesus, contempo- Kidder’s title bespeaks it all: “A Demon- rary English sources have virtually stration of the Messias, in Which the Truth nothing positive to say and very little of the Christian Religion Is Proved, Against that is even neutral. All the Enemies Thereof; but Especially To create the libretto for Handel’s Messi- Against the Jews.” Jennens owned an edi- ah, Charles Jennens (1701–1773), a formi- tion from 1726, and he appears to have dable scholar and a friend of the composer, studied it carefully. brought together a series of scriptural pas- Central to Kidder’s traditional Christian- GETTY IMAGES sages adapted from the Book of Common ity is a mode of interpretation called “typol- Prayer and the King James Bible. ogy,” which means that events in the As a traditionalist Christian, Jennens Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) point to Music lovers accustomed to gathering was troubled by the spread of deism—the events in Christian history not only through for December sing-alongs may be surprised notion that God had simply created the cos- explicit prophecy and fulfillment but also to learn that George Frideric Handel’s mos and let it run its course without divine through the more mysterious implied spiri- Messiah was meant not for Christmas but intervention. Christianity rested on the tual anticipation of Christian “antitypes” in for Lent, and that the “Hallelujah” chorus (biblical) belief that God broke into history Old Testament “types.” was designed not to honor the birth of Jesus by taking human form in Jesus. For Jennens In Romans 5:14, for example, the Apostle but to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem and his ilk, deism represented a serious Paul describes Adam as a type of “the one to and the Second Temple in 70 CE. For most menace. come” (Jesus, the antitype). Christians, this violent event was construed Deists argued that Jesus was neither the Such thinking was the driving force as divine retribution on Judaism for its fail- son of God nor the messiah. Since Christian behind Kidder’s book and Jennens’s choice ure to accept Jesus as messiah. writers had habitually considered Jews the and juxtaposition of texts for his libretto. Although many Handel scholars claim In Messiah, Old and New Testament selec- that significant numbers of Jews attended tions stand fundamentally in a typological the original performances of Handel’s orato- Editor’s Note: “Faculty Expert” is a new alignment. rios (1732–1751), they can offer no com- department of the Bulletin that will focus Jennens saw that he could not thwart his pelling evidence. Most Jews in 18th-century on faculty scholarship and research adversaries simply by producing reading England were too poor to attend such con- at Swarthmore. In each issue, we matter insisting that biblical texts be under- certs, and observant Jews would have balked will bring you articles written by faculty stood both typologically and as Christ-cen- at the public utterance of the sacred name of members as they pursue new knowledge tered. What better means to comfort disqui- God in the oratorios, even though “Jeho- and bring it to the College’s eted Christians against the faith-busting vah” was a Christian misunderstanding of classrooms and labs. We invite your wiles of deists and Jews than to draw on the the Lord’s prohibited name. comments—scholarly or otherwise— feelings and emotions of musical art—over Scholars often assert, too, that because on these articles. and above the reasons and revelations of Handel wrote oratorios on ancient Israelite verbal argument?

14 : swarthmore college bulletin Messiah does exactly this, culminating in tion to the theological message here. The the “Hallelujah” chorus. At Scene 6 in Part mood of the “Hallelujah” chorus is over- 2, the oratorio features passages from Psalm the-top triumph. For the first time in Messi- 2 of the Old Testament set as a series of ah, trumpets and drums are used together, antagonistic movements that precede although they would have been appropriate excerpts from the New Testament’s Book of or welcome at several earlier places. In Revelation set as the triumphant “Hallelu- Baroque music, trumpets with drums were jah” chorus: type and antitype, prophecy emblems of great power and of victory. In and fulfillment. Messiah, the combination is saved for cele- The bass aria that opens Scene 6 asks, brating the destruction of Christ’s crucifix- “Why do the nations so furiously rage ion-provoking “enemies” prefigured in together, and why do the people imagine a Psalm 2. vain thing?” But in the standard biblical With Old Israel supposedly rejected by sources, the passage (Psalm 2:1) reads not God and its obsolescence long before “nations” but “heathen.” ensured, why did 18th-century writers and Jennens took his reading from Henry composers rejoice against Judaism at all, Hammond (1605–1660), the great 17th- whether explicitly or, as here, implicitly? century Anglican biblical scholar, whose There must have been some festering Chris- extended and fiercely erudite commentary tian anxiety about the prolonged survival of on Psalm 2 suggests the advantage of Judaism: how could a “false” religion last? “nations” over “heathen”: “nations” can Anglican bishop Richard Kidder’s 1690’s Might Judaism somehow actually be “true”? readily include the Jews. In the 18th century, treatise on Jesus as messiah was a dia- These issues were a matter of life and no one would have uncritically used the tribe against Jews and their “underwork- death, says Jennens’s key guide, Kidder: “If King James Bible and the Book of Common men,” the deists. Charles Jennens, who we be wrong in dispute with the Jews, we err Prayer’s word “heathen” for Jews or wrote the libretto for Handel’s Messiah, fundamentally and must never hope for sal- Judaism. owned and studied this 1726 edition. vation. So that either we or the Jews must Handel sets Psalm 2:1 as an aria drawing be in a state of damnation. Of such great on the stile concitato (agitated style), with If Jews are understood to make up importance are those matters in dispute repeated 16th notes as a convention for vio- “them,” who does “thou” refer to? Contem- between us and them.” lent affects to underline the raging of the porary commentators widely agree it was the This would represent ample motivation nations, pointedly including the Jews. “The resurrected Jesus, who unleashed his anger for the text and musical setting of Messiah people,” when they “imagine a vain thing,” on the Jews by having the Roman armies lay to engage these issues and would perhaps are further associated with a conspicuous waste Jerusalem and its temple in 70 CE. help explain any lapse from decent Chris- violin line of oscillating pitches. Indeed, Christians were all but unani- tian gratitude into unseemly rejoicing in the A similar melodic idea depicts the Jews mous in believing that the violence of Psalm “Hallelujah” chorus. in the earlier recitative “All they that see him 2:9 represented the prophesying type for a While still a timely, living masterpiece laugh him to scorn; they shoot out their later event: the destruction of Jerusalem and that may continue to bring spiritual and lips, and shake their heads.” The recitative its temple, the fulfilling antitype. aesthetic sustenance to many music lovers, sets Psalm 22:7—a text that can be under- Now having brought in Psalm 2 and its Christian or otherwise, Messiah also appears stood (typologically) to foreshadow a New understood prophecy of the destruction of to be very much a work of its own era. T Testament passage, Matthew 27:39-40, the temple—widely believed to signal God’s which refers to Jewish pilgrims attending rejection of Judaism—what is Jennens’s Michael Marissen received a B.A. from Calvin Passover and to Jesus on the cross: “They response? “Hallelujah! for the Lord God College and Ph.D. from Brandeis University, that passed by, reviled him, wagging their omnipotent reigneth; the kingdom of this joining the Swarthmore faculty in 1989. He heads.” The oscillating pattern and its world is become the kingdom of our Lord teaches courses on medieval, renaissance, scornful tone capture the Jews’ rejection of and of his Christ” (Revelation 19:6, 19:16, baroque, and classical European music; Bach; a Jesus as messiah. and 11:5). conceptual introduction to the music of various Later in Scene 6, at the tenor aria, Jen- cultures; Mozart; and the string quartet. He is nens skips to Psalm 2:9, “Thou shalt break Jennens undoubtedly got the idea of juxta- the author of Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, them with a rod of iron.” His excision of posing these passages directly from Ham- and Bach's “St. John Passion” (Oxford Uni- verses 5-8 makes the violent language in mond, who wrote: “Now at Revelation 11 is versity Press, 1998) and The Social and Reli- “Thou shalt break them” refer to the Jesus- fulfilled that prophecy of Psalm 2. The Jew- gious Designs of J. S. Bach's “Brandenburg rejecting Jews, because without the interven- ish nation have behaved themselves most Concertos” (Princeton University Press, 1999). ing verses, “them” refers to “the nations” stubbornly against Christ, and cruelly He is currently writing a monograph, Handel's (including the Jews) and “the people” (the against Christians, and God’s judgments “Messiah” and Christian Triumphalism. Jews) of the bass aria, rather than the gen- are come upon them.” A different version of this essay appeared in tiles referred to in the missing verse 8. Handel’s music makes its own contribu- The New York Times on April 8.

september 2007 : 15 Brushes All Sticky With Words

ALEXANDRA GRANT ’94 USES ART TO CREATE HER OWN SPECIAL MOTHER TONGUE.

By Carol Brévart-Demm

In Alexandra Grant’s 1999 painting Palimpsest, lish. The cosmopolitan student body of the British school she chains of words written backwards in pale orange attended exposed her to families of many other nationalities. At balloons drift on clouds in shades of pink. Behind age 11, Grant spent a year in boarding school in St. Louis, Mo., them, other reversed-word balloons hover, some while her mother was learning French at the Foreign Service partially or completely erased, hinting at a former Institute in preparation for a stint in France. Then, moving to Paris existence. The layers interconnect in a mysterious col- to be with her mother, she spent two years mingling with the chil- laboration of text, pattern, and color. Stretching over a dren of foreign diplomats at the International School in Paris. Flu- 72 by 66–inch canvas, Palimpsest was a forerunner of works ent in Spanish, French, and English, she possesses what she calls a currently being shown in the exhibit MOCA Focus: Alexan- “hyperawareness” of language and the problems inherent in trans- dra Grant at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary lation—of “what is gained or lost or misunderstood,” as meanings Art, Grant’s first solo show. All the works testify to her are transposed from one language into another. preoccupation with language. All are large—high and “Being raised in a society that’s different linguistically and cul- wide—and their depth seems infinite. turally than the one you’re from, than the one your parents are Grant is the daughter of former political science from, you search for a way to make sense of it,” Grant says. “The professor and American foreign-service officer Marcia urge to write is there, to create a language, to tell a story of Montin Grant ’60, H’07 and the late Norman what you really understand. Because I was brought up Grant, a Scottish geology professor. The couple moving and experiencing so much by the age of 14, the divorced when Alexandra was quite young, and only way I believed I could make sense of the experience she spent a large part of her childhood in Mex- was to do something creative with it.” ico City, where her mother was stationed. As a Grant grew up immersed in fine arts—in her home, girl, she thought of herself as Mexican, speak- during frequent visits to museums and archaeological ing Spanish in response to her mother’s Eng- sites, and at concerts. Her mother was an avid art collec- BRIAN FORREST WEIDEMEYER T ROBER

“All my interests are about language and story-telling and and how I could show that,” Grant says. In Palimpsest (above, voices, but ultimately, I sought a greater challenge—to think 1999), word balloons hover, some partially or completely about issues of writing and linguistic theory in terms of art, erased, hinting at a former existence.

18 : swarthmore college bulletin GRANT ALEXANDRA OF FORREST FORREST TESY BRIAN COUR BRIAN

Since 2003, Grant (center, right) has collaborated with hyper- tor. “She’d bring interesting objects home all the time,” Grant says. text novelist Michael Joyce (center, left). Four of his poems “She’d come back from a business trip with a giant wooden dragon inspired the paintings in Grant’s Ladder Quartet; three are under her arm. She figured out how to buy artwork and crafts on a seen here (left to right): let’s (after Joyce’s “Ladders, 2004”); very limited professor’s budget. She just had a sense that it was contender (after “Contend, 2004”)—a detail of which is seen important—like having a piano.” on page 17; and she taking her space (after “he taking the In 1998, after a semester at the California College of Arts and space of, 2004”). Crafts in San Francisco, during which she had started to “map out Grant kept a visual journal (below) during a leave from text into chains of words”—the “bubble poems” that define many the California College of Arts and Crafts, as she sought to of her works such as Palimpsest—Grant took a leave of absence from identify what she had to say as a woman, artist, and American. school to try to identify what she had to say as a woman, artist, and American. She immersed herself in the writings and poetry of “Being raised in a society that’s different linguistically and culturally than the one you’re from, you search for a way to make sense of it . . . to tell a story of what you really understand.” authors and philosophers including Jacques Derrida, Michel Fou- cault, Maxine Hong Kingston, Clarice Lispector, and Karl Marx, keeping detailed notes—many also in the form of word chains—as she read. She felt a particular affinity to feminist linguistic theorist, philosopher, and author Hélène Cixous, who, born in Algeria of an Austro-German-Jewish mother and Algerian Sephardic father, was ON raised speaking German. Cixous emigrated to France as a young THINGT adult, where she obtained degrees in English literature and became WOR a writer of fictional, poetic, and theoretical works in both English

and French. Her 1993 book Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing MICHAEL

september 2007 : 19 inspired Grant to “dream about creating my own ‘mother tongue’” found while reading widely. “There’s such an inherent awareness of in art and was the starting point for Grant’s Ladder Quartet, one of how to keep language alive in poetry, which is why I chose it as a lit- the central features of the MOCA exhibit. erary form, and, as I’m visually mapping the text, there has to be a If Grant had not had the itch to be tactile, she would probably sense of structural cadence to it.” She created one of her earliest have been a writer, she says. “All my interests are about language works by riffing off Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska’s and story-telling and voices, but ultimately—and I guess this is poem “Possibilities.” The fact that the poem had been translated where Swarthmore kicks in—I sought a greater challenge, to think into English from Polish fed into Grant’s interest in the transforma- about issues of writing and linguistic theory in terms of art, and tion of language through translation. Mapping the text by forming how I could show that.” During her period of reading and note- words inside bubbles made from thin black wire, the first two lines taking, she stumbled upon the idea of text as image and image as of the poem “I prefer” became the central point around which text, investigating what she calls “that liminal place where a word strands of poetry created a heliocentric shape. Suspended from the becomes an image of a word. I understood that that seam would ceiling, like a “spider web of language,” the sculpture cast a shadow be one I could mine for a long time,” she says. on the wall behind it, which Grant traced over with a pencil. How Initially struggling with completely committing to being a visual far apart or close to each other are Szymborska and Grant—and artist, Grant contemplated a Ph.D. in architectural theory and does it really matter? As Grant’s drawing echoes shadow echoing enrolled in Princeton’s School of Architecture. “I thought of archi- sculpture echoing translated text echoing original poem, material tecture as an interdisciplinary field where I could draw and articu- and immaterial, reality and mystery intermingle. The sculpture, late ideas about design and theory and think about the way people titled I prefer, drawing without paper (after Wislawa Syzmborska) was move through different spaces—ideally it has all these pieces under created for the 2002 exhibit unDRAWN: Unusual Approaches to one roof. However, in my case, I realized that, confronted with the Drawing at the Brewery Project in Los Angeles. real struggles of an architecture practice such as coming into contact After years working with “found poetry” in her drawings, paint- with certain limitations because of my sex and the demands of entry ings, and sculptures, Grant wished for a closer collaboration with a level jobs, being under that roof would limit what I could engage,” working poet. In 2003, quite by chance, while researching for a cura- she says. “I saw that I needed to take my ideas outside of a predeter- torial project on-line, she discovered a hypertext piece that, she says, mined career path and the limits of an institution. I knew I had to function independently as an artist.” For a while, she worked as a consultant for La Colección Patricia Rather than succumb to galleries’ Phelps de Cisneros in New York City but moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to focus on her art work. Although she used texts from her demands for many small, journals for some smaller works, she later turned to the poetry she easy-to-produce works, Grant says, “My response was to double the size, go the opposite direction, push the bounds.” FORREST BRIAN

20 : swarthmore college bulletin “was so beautiful, I knew immediately that this was the language I Their finding each other appears to have been all the more pre- wanted to work with.” She traced the text to Michael Joyce, a poet destined by the fact that Joyce is well-acquainted with Hélène and professor of English literature at Vassar College and the “grand- Cixous, who wrote the afterword for one of his books. Joyce father of hypertext fiction.” Grant wrote to him and requested his arranged a meeting between Grant and Cixous in Paris, and Cixous permission to use his work—titled Reach—for one of her drawings has since visited Grant’s studio in Los Angeles. “When Hélène was in wire. Within days, he replied, delighted to work with Grant. in my studio last year, I was aware that she was there because I had Looking at the work—a wire, word-web sculpture hung above a engaged her and her ideas through what I was making—that my piece of paper, on which she had traced the shadows cast by the artwork had generated her presence,” Grant says. sculpture to form topographic lines and create a landscape of lan- The MOCA exhibit contains many of Grant’s works created in guage—Joyce recognized a parallel to his own intentions with collaboration with Joyce. “How it works,” Grant says, “is that I’ll language. have an idea, let’s say a silver-wire ball of text with a nimbus-like “As one of the first hypertext novelists of the 1980s and 1990s, shape. My description of it will suggest 12 things to Michael, then his goal was to democratize language, to make it nonlinear, decen- he’ll compose a text. My translation of it won’t be a literal one. If tralize the central narrator,” Grant says. “This was exactly what I there are parts I don’t like, I obliterate them, and that process of was trying to do visually, and we found each other just because I rec- reacting to his text becomes part of the image or object. Michael is a ognized a quality in his language.” very generous writer and as interested in collaboration as I am—he Grant believes that her true success as an artist began when she is open to his work being transformed. His texts are a gift of trust to found Joyce, “because I was really able to start engaging all these me and may become whatever I choose to make them.” ideas I was interested in—from linguistic theory to international Grant created nimbus I (after Michael Joyce’s “Nimbus”) in 2004. understanding, to language and mark making, everything poetic, yet Similar to but more sophisticated than I prefer, the sculpture rotates, everything concrete,” she says. “Here was another person with a driven by a small motor, in marvelous suspension from the ceiling. practice who was willing to meet me as an equal.” Although her As delicate wire chains of fleeting words cast ever-changing shad- works at that time, 20-foot spider webs of language, were so huge ows on the nearby wall, the very nature of the work prevents the that they could not be moved and so were virtually uncollectible, she meaning of the language that has shaped it from being fully says, “I really thought I’d made it when I found this partnership. I’d revealed. found my dream audience.” The initial inspiration for Grant’s 2004 Ladder Quartet came Grant and Joyce work together not only as artists but also as from Cixous’ essay “The Last Painting or The Portrait of God,” in scholars; they have delivered joint lectures at Notre Dame University which Cixous describes herself as a writer “with brushes all sticky and California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Please turn to page 79

At 22 feet across, babel (after Michael Joyce’s “Was, 2006”), is Grant’s most ambi- tious work to date. Now represented by the Honor Fraser Gallery in Venice, Calif., she anticipates a long career as an artist.

september 2007 : 21 22 : swarthmore college bulletin Beyond the Book TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS—AND AUTHORS LIKE SWARTHMORE’S SCOTT GILBERT—GET CREATIVE TO STAY AFLOAT.

By Carol Brévart-Demm

isitors to the Swarth- more College Bookstore cannot help but be enticed by the bright dis- plays covering the sales floor—attractive baskets, bags, jewelry, and scarves, handmade by artisans—from V“World of Good.” “Witty gifts for funny people,” including mints, mugs, finger pup- pets, and watches, from the “Unemployed Philosophers Guild” figure prominently, as

do “beautiful prisms” that catch the sun ANS

and cast dancing rainbows all around. A KOST “large selection of gifts under $2,” including kazoos, whistles, bubbles, and puzzles is

available to tempt the thrifty. Swarthmore ELEFTHERIOS garb invites the campus fashion conscious. But wait—isn’t this a bookstore? Bookstore manager Kathy Grace uses OK, tables of books are scattered among profits from general merchandise to the other goods, and bookshelves cover two offset the decline in textbook sales. walls, but these are not the eye-catchers. The bookstore displays send a clear message als, videos, PowerPoint options, study about the store’s current selling power—and guides, Web resources, and other items— it isn’t in books. According to bookstore all of which add to the publishing cost and manager Kathy Grace, some of the profits hence the retail price of the book. from general merchandise are being used Grace questions the extent to which the this year to offset the decline in sales of student or teacher uses all of the extras. Professor of Biology Scott textbooks and other course materials. “The publishers are doing all they can to get Gilbert sees Developmental As teachers and students turn to the students to buy new books by creating these Biology as the starting point more dynamic—and less costly—informa- bundles, and if the components of the bun- of a whole learning module tion providers on the Web, the traditional dles are being used, that’s great, and it’s that college biology students textbook has relinquished some of its sover- wonderful value; if it’s not, then it’s wasted. receive. He was one of the eign status as the defining feature of college Although the publishers say it’s free, the first authors to embed in a and school curricula. students know there is cost associated with textbook Web references to Struggling to remain competitive, the it, and that aggravates them,” she says. a site specifically designed textbook publishing industry is developing Due to variables like changes in the total for a textbook. all kinds of ancillaries, for both teachers and student population, course offerings, and students, to accompany the books—manu- course enrollment from year to year, there is

september 2007 : 23 no accurate method of obtaining reliable sometimes sudden discoveries in the field: figures to reflect changes in textbook sales, “It used to be the case that a biology book but publishers, authors, and both new- and could last for 7 to 8 years without being used-book retailers alike say that their sales reissued, but that is no longer true.” He is figures have been declining. grateful for his collaboration with Sinauer, Nonetheless, not all traditional text- an author-centered publishing house that books have gone the way of the dinosaur permits changes to the book until the day and the slide rule. For an example of a text- the disks are sent to the printer. book that has been successful over time and “We had to do that when Dolly was managed to thrive on the changes of the last cloned,” Gilbert says, recalling the final days two decades, one need only look to the Col- of preparation for the fifth edition in Febru- lege’s Biology Department. Scott Gilbert’s ary 1997. “The text would have read some- Developmental Biology, first published in thing like, ‘No mammal has been cloned.’” 1985, has evolved with the industry to Because the book had already been paginat- become almost unrecognizably different ed when news of the cloning broke, Gilbert from its earliest editions. had to make a character-for-character The idea for Developmental Biology germi- change, taking out exactly as many charac- nated in the late 1970s, when the study of ters as he put in. how organisms grow and develop was Throughout its evolution, Developmental undergoing rapid change. Existing text- Biology—by now much more than simply a books focused either on molecular develop- book—has been quite a community effort. ʼ 83

ment or on anatomical development, but no Gilbert has received assistance from stu- DIXON work was available to bridge the gap. Sens- dents, alumni, and other College employees ing a growing dissatisfaction among young with typing, first onto paper and later on ALAN biologists entering the field, publisher Sin- computers; with proof-reading, editing, and Biologist Scott Gilbert (above, ca. 1982) auer Associates asked Professor David Son- writing; and, more recently, with Web-site published the first edition of Develop- neborn of the University of Wisconsin at creation. [See p. 27.] mental Biology in 1985. To keep pace Madison to write a new book that combined with frequent discoveries in the field of the two approaches. TODAY’S DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY, GILBERT biology, Gilbert says, triennial editions Sonneborn declined the assignment but says, is the result of three revolutions in sci- are essential. suggested instead a young postdoctoral ence-textbook–publishing during the last researcher who had just accepted a position 25 years. “I’d take the typed versions and suggest at Swarthmore College. Apparently, Scott First and foremost has been the revolu- corrections, then give it back to Diane, who Gilbert was among those who had been tion of content. “The whole structure of the would type it again,” Gilbert explains. “I’d griping about not having just such a book book has changed,” Gilbert says. “We now send it to the publisher, the publisher would to teach from.“The idea was that I should have whole chapters on things that didn’t review it, and then Diane retyped it yet either put up or shut up,” says Gilbert, now exist in 1985, such as medical embryology, again.” the College’s Howard A. Schneiderman Pro- cloning, regeneration research, and stem “He credits me at the front of the book, fessor of Biology. Gilbert says the publisher cells. We have a chapter on plant develop- which I thought was a wonderful gesture,” told him, “‘If you think a book is needed, try ment, which hadn’t been studied on a Stasiunas says. writing one.’” molecular basis in 1980. When I first wrote The third revolution was one of graphics. Gilbert’s brown eyes twinkle, and his the book, the three basic paradigms that are In 1984, faxes were a novelty, Federal Ex- boyish face radiates all the delight of a now central to developmental biology— press a rarely used luxury, e-mail did not proud father as he speaks of the birth of paracrine factors, transcription factors, and exist, and nobody talked of pixels per inch, Developmental Biology: “I was very glad I signal transduction pathways—were Gilbert says. Early editions of the book wrote it then, because those were pivotal unknown.” required actual photographs and drawings years for the transition of the field into what The second revolution has been one of on loan from scientific journals and other we now know as developmental biology. I production and printing—the physical cre- researchers. Drawings were done with pen kind of caught the wave.” ation of books. In the early 1980s, “a world and ink by artists who made corrections The wave is still rising. The book cele- ago,” says Gilbert, the book was handwrit- with Wite Out or mechanical erasers. brated its 21st anniversary last year with the ten. Seeking someone to type it, he found “Now, we can get state-of-the-art high- publication of its eighth edition. “It filled a Diane Stasiunas, a new employee in “Steno” resolution digital color images—sent to us need,” Gilbert says, adding that some other (now known as Office Services). “Being new usually the same day I request them,” biologists had also started to write books and nervous, I was anxious to make a good Gilbert says, his eyes widening, seeming but dropped them when his appeared. impression,” Stasiunas says. “But the book hardly able to believe it himself. “So the Gilbert says that triennial editions are was very interesting , and I looked forward thing now is that not only have the stan- essential to keep pace with the frequent and to each chapter as Scott brought it to me.” dards changed but the ability to meet the

24 : swarthmore college bulletin Internet grew into an information and com- was written and printed in the United munications conduit, gradually, a Web site, States and I’m selling it at $100, they think I CD-ROM disks containing all figures in the must have paid maybe $30 for it, if the U.K. book, and a DVD were added to Developmen- can sell it at $50—but, in fact, I paid $80 tal Biology. If bought as a “bundle” with the for it. The students get the impression book, a new supplement on bioethics can be they’re being ripped off, which makes them had at cost. not want to buy these materials—and I The visually attractive book, with 785 wouldn’t either.” Publishers are also trying pages and 752 illustrations, displays on its to boost their sales by selling directly to stu- cover a micrograph of a vividly colored dents at lower than retail prices, further zebrafish (Danio rerio), an ideal subject for impacting bookstore sales. the study of cell movement because its Charlie Stasiunas, assistant supervisor of transparent embryo develops quickly and the College post office and former bookstore occurs outside a uterus or eggshell. The employee, has experienced the textbook easy-to-navigate pages are bright with market in both of his jobs at Swarthmore. abundant colored drawings, diagrams, and He says that during his tenure at the book- photographs. Small, colored boxes guide store, boxes of books that had been ordered readers to Web sites. by faculty members for courses were often As the complexity of the book has sent back to the publisher because students increased, so has its price—from $33.95 had bought them more cheaply elsewhere. for the first edition in 1985 to $112.50 Now, he says: “At the beginning of every for the most recent one, reflecting an semester, the post office is inundated with inflation-adjusted 100 percent big boxes of book orders coming in from increase. On the other hand, the amazon.com.” bioethics supplement, which costs A thriving peer-to-peer market on Inter- $14.95 alone, was offered free by net sites such as eBay is also taking its toll the publisher last year to all who on the publishing and textbook retail busi- purchased the textbook. nesses. “Of course,” Grace jokes, “the stu- Gilbert points out that the dents need packaging to send off the items used-book market also affects they are selling, so they’re buying lots more the price of new textbooks. padded envelopes from us. Because neither author nor “We want the course material depart- publisher receives money for ment to break even,” Grace says. “The store resold copies, their profits are does make money; we contribute money made for the most part in the first year of back to the College budget, but we divide standards has also sales. the store into two sections: one is for course changed. It’s a kind of reciprocal thing— New copies of Developmental Biology, of materials, the other for everything else. The you can do it, so you’d better do it.” which the College Bookstore has sold 54 money we contribute to the College comes Gilbert has definitely been doing it. The copies since 2003, can be purchased in from the latter section, the T-shirts and 1985 edition comprised 680 pages with 567 Europe for between $86 and $100 plus sweatshirts, the mugs and other appealing illustrations; except for the cover, it was shipping. items.” published in black and white, and it includ- Grace says that the Swarthmore store ed no supplements. Preparing the book for TEXTBOOK RETAILERS ARE CONCERNED THAT charges much less for College apparel and reissue in 1988, Gilbert enlisted three young American publishers are increasingly selling other memorabilia than other colleges’ alumni to input the text onto the still rela- their books to overseas markets at substan- stores, and, according to Grace, its prices for tively new personal computer, so that he tially lower prices, claiming reasons such as similar items compared favorably with Wal- could edit it on screen. the need to sell “to market” or that the mart’s prices in a Philadelphia Inquirer article. “It was amazing how many details need- United States is their market and all other As booksellers are forced to confront ed to be updated—numbers, dates, whole sales are mere “gravy.” One student who falling sales in the face of rising book prices, sections had to be changed or added,” says requested anonymity said that he obtained some faculty members, concerned that their Lisa Lee ’81, currently director of alumni an unused math textbook from India for $12 students must regularly spend up to $500 relations, who typed at Gilbert’s home while instead of the $80 he would have paid in each semester on books, are seeking less babysitting his two oldest children. this country. costly alternatives to the increasingly costly Further changes from edition to edition “Students can surf the Web and see the textbooks. Many place articles and books on included two-color, then four-color print- very same books at lower prices,” Grace reserve in the College libraries. Others write ing, a supplemental lab manual, overhead says. “If they can buy a book for $50 in a their own books and post them on the Web. transparencies, and VHS videos. As the European country or on amazon.uk that Professor of Mathematics Charles Grin-

september 2007 : 25 stead and J. Laurie Snell of ry, discussing the natural histo- Dartmouth College have co- ry and the developmental written Introduction to Probabili- anatomy of the organisms usu- ty, the second edition of a book ally worked on in developmen- Snell wrote 20 years ago. Pub- tal biology. She includes movies lished by the American Mathe- showing living organisms matical Society, it is available in rather than the dead embryos hard copy and—at the insis- typically used in most labs. “It’s tence of the authors—is down- phenomenal,” Gilbert says. loadable from the Web at no The most recent member of charge. Grinstead says: “Our the Developmental Biology family publisher wasn’t thrilled about resulted from Gilbert’s longtime it at first, but they’re still selling interest and involvement in hard copies, so I think they’re bioethics. While teaching a happy with it now.” The book course on the history of biology, sells for $50. “This is very low Gilbert asked students to iden- for a textbook,” Grinstead says. tify seven areas where develop- In his seminar, he uses academ- mental biology came up against ic articles on probability in GRAHAM ethical issues in society. The VID addition to the main text. DA students divided into groups of “Many of these are accessible three and wrote papers on top- on the Net, which I think is a Today, Gilbert says that despite the wealth of Internet-based ics including cloning, stem big improvement over the situa- resources, “the students want something ‘hard’ to refer to.” cells, and genetic engineering. tion even 15 years ago,” he says, Other faculty members agree—and some have written and pub- “Reading the papers, I realized adding, “The incredible increase lished texts specifically tailored to their own courses. that they made probably the in computing power over the best introduction to embryolo- past 30 years has certainly changed the way Pointing out that all tables and diagrams gy and bioethics I had ever seen,” Gilbert I teach a probability course.” containing data are accompanied by actual says. With help from Anna Tyler ’03 and photographs of what the data represents, Emily Zackin ’02, he set out to edit the com- GILBERT SEES DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY as the Gilbert says: “We want them to know that pilation of papers into a book. starting point of a whole learning module this is real stuff—these are photographs of “We rewrote the students’ papers, added that college biology students receive. He was real embryos, showing development occur- more to them, checked the references, and one of the first authors to embed in a text- ring in real space and time. You can learn a formatted the manuscript,” Gilbert says. book Web references to a site designed tremendous amount from the pictures. Bioethics and the New Embryology: Spring- specifically for a textbook. Serving as a com- “In fact,” he adds, only half joking, “you boards for Debate was published in 2005 and prehensive companion to the textbook, can almost use this book as a picture book. owns a section of the Web site. The book www.devbio.com presents philosophical, If you go through the illustrations, you’ll has received favorable reviews in Nature, ethical, and historical issues relating to know what the book says.” Bioessays, and on amazon.com. “My hope is developmental biology. Each book chapter He stresses the importance of the latest that instructors will add bioethics to their contains numbered Web topics, accessible supplementary materials available with the curricula,” Gilbert says. directly by typing the reference number from book. In the current instructor’s edition, the the book into the site’s home page. supplemental DVD contains every figure in WITH THE INTERNET REVOLUTION, the curricu- Gilbert’s book differs from other devel- the book either as a free-standing figure or la of most math, science, and technology opmental biology texts because of its histor- in PowerPoint format. Embedded in the courses are no longer defined solely by text- ical content, which Gilbert believes is PowerPoint option are more than 100 books. Now, without leaving their desks, important to the study of developmental movies showing development. At the discre- students have the option of accessing infor- biology. “Aristotle worked on the heart,” he tion of the teacher, Gilbert says, they may be mation on-line and participating in interac- says. “William Harvey worked on the heart; shared with students via computer networks tive exercises provided by their teachers all these great people tried to find out how or by duplicating the DVD. both on Blackboard (an interactive course the heart worked. You are invited to research The students’ editions come equipped management software package for faculty this. Looking at the history, we show that with a different DVD, a vade mecum or com- and students) and from other Internet developmental biology was done by a wide panion resource, that offers an interactive sources. Students like the ease with which range of peoples in many different countries laboratory approach to developmental biolo- information can be found via computer yet, with many different perspectives. There’s no gy. Written by Mary Stott Tyler ’71, a biology despite the rising costs, many still relish one way of being a developmental biologist. professor at the University of Maine, it pro- being able to handle a real textbook—on This is important for the students to know.” vides a basic introduction to each laborato- the couch or even in bed.

26 : swarthmore college bulletin Gilbert says he does not foresee Develop- them on-line so that people can decide mental Biology becoming totally “etherized.” whether they want to actually buy or just Although he believes it will become more download a part of a book.” and more the center of a complex of Inter- AS IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT AND BOARD net-based resources, he says, “I think the MEMBER of the National Association of Col- students want something ‘hard’ that they lege Stores, Grace attended a September can refer to.” meeting of college bookstore managers and Professor and Chair of Mathematics textbook publishing representatives to dis- A FAMILY AFFAIR Stephen Maurer ’67, Grinstead, and their cuss the future of the textbook publishing According to Scott Gilbert, Developmental colleagues seem to be successfully combin- industry and its consequences for retailers. Biology, which turned 21 last year, has ing the use of on-line and hard-copy mate- They reviewed issues including publishers been raised by a whole family of College rials for teaching and learning, profiting sales prices to overseas retailers, book community members. Gilbert credits not only from interactive software such as rental programs, digital content initiatives, the following nurturers for its successful Mathematica or Math Emporium but also direct publisher-to-student initiatives, and birth, childhood, adolescence, and from the relative ease with which faculty alternative textbook formats, such as e- coming-of-age: members, like Grinstead, can write their books versus “no frills” paper editions, in • Diane Stasiunas typed, retyped, and own textbooks, using downloadable pub- an effort to create strategies for mutual typed again the first edition from Gilbert’s lishing software, and release them for on- support and cooperation. handwritten pages. line public domain use. Since the beginning of the 2006–2007 Maurer compared two versions of a text academic year, the bookstore has been sell- • To facilitate Gilbert’s editing of the text used in one calculus course. It was available ing digital versions of some textbooks. in preparation for the second edition, in the College bookstore in hard copy and Through the Universal Textbook Program, young alumni Barry Datloff ’83 and Rohit in a lower-cost electronic version on-line. publishers make some of their titles avail- Mahajan ’84 as well as Lisa Lee ’81 typed “We checked with a few students to find able digitally, and bookstores can decide at the text onto a computer. out whether anyone was using the on-line what price they will sell them to students. • The idea for the book’s Web site, version,” Maurer says. “They reported that “Essentially, the greater the discount at www.devbio.com, arose from Gilbert’s they hadn’t found it very helpful because which you want to sell, the less the book- conversations with student Barbara Ley they’d only been able to look at a bit at a store gets to keep,” Grace says. “We’re mak- ’94, who was interested in the roles of the time. It’s also still true, at least of our stu- ing the e-books available at 40 percent off, Internet in education. Bradley Gabe ’94 dents, that if it’s more than a few pages, which leaves us about an 8-percent profit and Daniel Wells ’95, with assistance from they like to hold it in their hands.” margin. Our usual retail margin for hard- the Math Forum, helped launch this site as Meanwhile, Grinstead is delighted that copy textbooks is 20 percent, but we use a wiki-type Gopher site in 1994, where sci- his book is selling quite well in hard copy that to pay to ship the books in here, pay entists were asked to update the text. but also enjoying worldwide exposure via someone to put them on the shelves, and Heather Mateyak Bruemmer ’97, a com- the Internet. “It’s really nice seeing e-mail pay someone to return any we don’t sell. puter science student who had created from places like Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, And we have to pay for them up front and her own Web site, reconfigured the site to Africa, and South America, saying things get credits. The digital books are paid for as the http format, and the URLs for this site like, ‘I really like your book. I’d like to use it they’re purchased, so there are far fewer were included in the fifth edition (1997). in a class I’m teaching.’” Two readers have costs associated with them.” • Mary Stott Tyler ’71, author of the vade expressed interest in translating the book, Despite the Internet revolution, faculty mecum, is not only an alumna but also one into Italian and another into Catalan. members, publishers, and students still daughter of Gilmore Stott, late associate Maurer believes that the free download currently believe that the printed textbook provost emeritus and special assistant to may even be increasing hard-copy sales of is central to most courses in the sciences, the president. Grinstead’s book. “The apparent no-brain- mathematics, and technology. But many er—that everyone will download—isn’t anticipate that this will change over time. • Bioethics: Springboards for Debate was actually true, because it’s really hard to use Dean Scudder, vice president of Sinauer edited by Anna Tyler ’03, a doctoral stu- a 300-page book on screen.” Associates, says: “We foresee little drop in dent in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Despite his apparent success in bridging printed textbook sales in the sciences in the Department at Dartmouth College, and the gap between the real and the virtual next 5 years but expect e-texts to have an Emily Zackin ’02, a political science major textbook, Grinstead predicts that the exis- increasing impact down the road.” He adds and honors biology minor while at the Col- tence of books in paper form will gradually that when the marketplace demands it, Sin- lege and, currently, a doctoral student in diminish. “That doesn’t mean we won’t auer will be prepared to offer its texts in a Princeton University’s Politics Department. have libraries,” he says. “It’s just that in high-end electronic format. • Gilbert’s students provided an endless this day and age, people can write and print And, if Grace and her staff have any- stream of ideas and comments as well as their own books, then publish them and thing to do with it, the College Bookstore proofreading and editing assistance. have them on-line as well. It’s nice to have will be around to receive them. T

september 2007 : 27 S i l e n t v o i c e s e c h o f r o m m o r e t h a n a c e n t u r y o f g r a d u a t i n g c l a s s e s i n t h e m o s t p e r m a n e n t m e d i u m d e v i s e d b y h u m a n s .

By Jeffrey Lott Rubbings by Isobel Rubin Translations by Martin Ostwald, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Classics

ith the Class of 1938, a Swarth- “Goodwill,” the Class of 2005 cheerfully century of graduating classes in the most more tradition—the placement proclaimed, placing their “feeling of permanent medium devised by humans: Wof stone mottos in the walls of approval and support—benevolent interest They are carved in stone. The earliest, a Parrish Hall seemed to die a wordless death. or concern” (as described by Webster’s) high-relief, was mounted on Parrish in 1891: From our vantage point—almost 70 years right next to the dour silence of 1938. Per- Non Dicere, Sed Facere (“Don’t Talk But later—1938 looked like the end of an era. haps it took the first class to attend Swarth- Act”). For two decades, though not in every That year, the graduating class chose only a more entirely in the new century to give year, classes chose elaborate carvings that number. One wonders, as the Depression voice to comity and hope on the occasion of sported phrases in Latin or Greek, often dragged on and war approached, if members its Commencement. entwined with the class year and the letters of that class couldn’t find anything pro- Campus visitors can’t help but notice the “SC.” The first stone entirely in English found or inspirational to say. After 1938, mottos on three sides of Parrish Hall and, came in 1919: “Carry On.” there were no more mottos. we discovered, in two obscure spots on the In translation, most of the the Greek and Until two years ago, when a new gradu- Sproul Alumni Center, the former observa- Latin mottos tout what Professor Emeritus ating class spoke in stone once again: tory. Silent voices echo from more than a of Economics Frederic Pryor classifies as

28 : swarthmore college bulletin “Goodwill,” placed by the Class of 2005, was the first new class motto added to the walls of Parrish Hall since 1938. After decades of Greek and Latin inscriptions, the first motto in English was “Carry On” (1919). Just one stone is in German: “Vorwärts” (1894).

september 2007 : 29 Although no one can truly know the minds of graduating classes a century ago, it’s fun to speculate on the relationship between their messages and the events of their time.

“character development,” phrases such as tude.” (The GDP dropped 41.34 percent in entrance to Parrish: “Use Well Thy Free- !όνῳ !άν!α—1893 (“All Things by Means the preceding four years.) dom” (1927). It rings true 80 years after the of Effort”), ἔθος ἀνθρώ!ῳ δαίµων— Mottos also reflect the advent of the stone was set there by classmates who have 1898 (“Character is Man’s Leading Spirit”), nation’s wars. Consider 1900, after the all but disappeared. Other great mottos and A Posse Ad Esse—1904 (“From Ability to Spanish-American War, when Quakers (the from this golden age of aphorisms include Being”). College was still largely Quaker at that time) “Stand for Truth” (1928), “Dare to be Wise” Pryor posits two additional classifica- might well say Nil Desperandum (“Do Not (1931), and the final Latin inscription Amat tions: celebratory and pessimistic. Ever the Despair”). Or the Wilsonian ring to the Victoria Curam (literally, “Victory Loves economist, he tries to correlate the three 1918 motto: Non Nobis Per Omnibus (“Not Care,” but more commonly “Victory Favors types of mottos against the percentage For Us, But For All”), followed by 1919’s Those Who Take Pains”). change in the Gross Domestic Product more sanguine “Carry On”—the first motto Will the initiative of the Class of 2005 (GDP) during the four years that each class in English. It’s a pity that the Class of 1942 inspire future classes to continue this tradi- attended college. He points to the exuberant didn’t carve a phrase in stone. Or the Class tion? The permanence of this form of 1929 motto “On and Ever On,” which of 1969. One can only wonder what wisdom expression must surely tempt some of the reflects “the go-go spirit of those times,” but they might have left us. young idealists who have seen their side- four years later, the Class of 1933’s “Courage On campus, everyone has a favorite walk chalkings wash away during the next and Patience” shows “a reversal of that atti- inscription. Mine is just outside the East hard rain. Yet, after four years at Swarth-

30 : swarthmore college bulletin more, the Parrish stone slogans may seem simplistic, with little relevance to the com- plex world into which they will graduate. Besides, who ever heard of writing a thesis with just three or four well-chosen words? Still, I hope the tradition continues; I hope the silence of 1938 doesn’t descend on the College for another 70 years. Maybe someday, my favorite Quaker aphorism will be carved in stone for future generations to ponder and make their own. It is simply this: “Proceed as the way opens.” T

A complete list of all 30 mottos and photographs of the high-relief carvings may be found with this article on the Bulletin Web site: www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin.

september 2007 : 31 “Professor” Peter Schickele meets his musical discovery— and alter-ego—P.D.Q. Bach, composer of such immortal works as Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice. Swarthmore’s First Music Major

DURING 40 YEARS AS “P.D.Q. BACH,” PETER SCHICKELE ’57 HAS LAID BARE THE COMIC UNDERSIDE OF MUSICAL CONVENTION.

By Paul Wachter ’97

Two winters ago, at his “40-year Retrogressive” concert at Manhattan’s Symphony Space Theater, composer Peter Schickele made one of his few concessions to age. Rather than make his entrance swinging Tarzan-style from a rope—as he had famously done 30 years earlier at Carnegie Hall— he descended from the balcony by ladder. “Hey, give me a break,” Schickele told the audience. “I’m 70.” The concert was a celebration of the remarkable canon of P.D.Q Bach, the fictional 21st child of Johann Sebastian Bach and the unsteady quill behind Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments, Oedipus Tex, The Abduction of Figaro, and countless other parodies. I had attended at the invi- tation of a friend, a guest performer who plays the serpent—a medieval wind instrument that was only one of the many curious instruments on stage that night. (Various parts of a toilet also were used to outrageous effect.) The audience was one part Lincoln Center and four parts Rocky Hor- ror Picture Show, taking their cues from Schickele’s bon mots and puns and hissing stage manager William Walters, a longstanding tradition among P.D.Q fans. It was great fun. Peter Schickele was Swarthmore’s first music major. “Back then, it was thought that music wasn’t sufficiently intellectually rigorous,” said his classmate Bill Rosenblum, a violinist. “Peter was the first to be accepted as a music major, I think, because he was obviously so talented.” It was a talent that he had developed long before he came to Swarth- more. Born in Ames, Iowa, Schickele spent his childhood in Washington, D.C., and Fargo, N.D. The moves were prompted by his father’s career as an agricultural economist. Rainer, Schickele’s father, played the flute recre- ationally; his mother, Elizabeth, was more accomplished on the piano. But “as a kid, at first, I wasn’t really into music,” Schickele says. Along with his late brother, David ’58, who followed him to Swarthmore, Schickele was a theater junkie. The two brothers erected a stage in their basement and put on their own plays, mostly Westerns. They called themselves the Nitso SCHAAF PETER ©

september 2007 : 33 dining room, and Schickele’s classmates can vividly recall arriving for dinner to find him already at the piano, improvising operas. Schickele composed string quartets and chamber music that his fellow students, including his brother, performed at Bond Hall and other campus venues. Always, Schickele was experimenting, pushing himself. As a sophomore, he composed a Bartok-inspired piece fea- turing two pianos, percussion, and several wind instruments. In rehearsal at the Bond Parlor, the acoustics never sounded right. “So, he kept moving the wind instruments forward into the seating, pushing the audience farther and farther against the back wall,” recalled David Porter ’58, president emeritus of Skidmore College and an accomplished pianist himself. Most of Shickele’s compositions during his time at Swarthmore were “serious” pieces, but there were also foreshadows of P.D.Q Bach. During Peter’s senior year, he and David performed Shake- speare songs at a convocation. Dressed formally, they performed, to Everly Brothers–style accompaniment, “Mañana, mañana, mañana,” giving a Spanish tweak to the famous speech from Macbeth. Following Swarthmore, Schickele attended Juilliard for three years. But before he enrolled that fall, he returned to Swarthmore and pretended to be a new student so that he could perform in the freshman talent show that traditionally was held after orientation, after the upper classes arrived. Schickele had taken a year off from college to battle and recover from polio, and for the performance, he adorned himself with his old crutches and back brace. He hobbled to the piano, where he proceeded to butcher a few Mozart selec- tions. “Of course, all the upper classmen, who knew what Peter was all about, were roaring with laughter,” Porter says. “But the fresh- men had no idea what was going on. They thought we were all mak- ing fun of a cripple and were wondering what sort of college this was. I was told that a few were traumatized for days.” GRAHAM After graduating from Juilliard, Schickele was selected to partici- JIM pate in the Ford Foundation and National Music Council’s new Shickele performed for a packed house at the Lang Young Composers Project and became a composer-in-residence for Performing Arts Center during his 50th reunion in June. Los Angeles-area high schools. “I had assumed I was going to be a teacher,” Schickele says. “That’s how all but a few classical composers earn a living.” Sure Theater. “Nitso” was slang for neat, and, years later, as a profession- enough, during the 1961–1962 school year, he taught at Swarth- al composer, Schickele would recycle the name for his P.D.Q. Bach more, while living in New York. He also began teaching at Juilliard. company, Nitso Productions. “It was a rough year. I had a class that got out at 9:20 at night in One of Schickele’s early musical influences was Spike Jones, the New York and a class the next morning at eight at Swarthmore.” popular radio star of the 1940s and 1950s. Jones’ band performed In April 1965, Schickele gave his first public P.D.Q. Bach concert comic renditions of pop tunes as well as classical standards. “I at New York’s Town Hall. It was later released by Vanguard Records became a Spike Jones geek,” Schickele says. In Fargo, Schickele, then as Peter Schickele Presents an Evening with P.D.Q. Bach (1807–1742)?. 12, put together a Jones-inspired basement band with his brother Twelve years earlier, back in Fargo, Schickele and a couple of and friends. Jerky Jems and His Balmy Brothers featured two clar- friends had been listening to J.S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata, one of the inets, a violin, and a tom-tom. Schickele composed the arrange- composer’s few lighthearted works. In tribute, Schickele composed ments, teaching himself as he went along. He also joined Fargo’s his Sanka Cantata and toyed around with inventing a pseudony- community orchestra as its only bassoonist. mous composer. Bach had many children, some of whom were also His composition teacher, Sigvald Thompson, encouraged him to musicians and became known by their initials. “One of the three of apply to Juilliard, Schickele says, but his parents wanted him to get a us—I’m not sure which—came up with P.D.Q., which stood for more balanced liberal-arts education, so he enrolled at Swarthmore. ‘pretty damn quick,’” Schickele said. He picked up the name again as “At the time, music wasn’t taught at a very serious level,” Schick- a teacher at Juilliard for the school’s in-house concerts and its annu- ele says. Associate Dean Gilmore Stott and several faculty members al performances in Aspen, Colo. organized performances, but mostly the students provided for the For the 1965 Town Hall concert, Schickele had more or less lively music scene. Young musicians sat together in the Parrish Hall developed the act that continues to sell out concert halls throughout

34 : swarthmore college bulletin the country: A disheveled and zany “Professor” Peter Schickele, Inevitably, Schickele became better known for his fictional cre- wearing a tuxedo and work boots, introduces the audience to the ation than his work as a “serious” composer. And when I spoke with works of his great discovery, the forgotten P.D.Q. Bach. He inter- him, I asked if, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, sperses music with pseudo-history, pointing out, for example, that he ever came to resent his fictional creation’s popularity. Schickele P.D.Q. was largely responsible quickly dismissed the notion. for Beethoven’s deafness: “I’ve been writing both seri- Beethoven stuffed coffee ous and funny work since I grounds into his ears when- “I’ve been writing both serious and was 13, and P.D.Q. Bach ever he saw P.D.Q. approach. brings in enough revenue for “Mr. Schickele’s brand of funny work since I was 13, and P.D.Q . me to be able to spend half of humor depends a good deal the year composing,” Schick- on sight gags and spoken Bach brings in enough revenue so ele says. (Although he main- puns, but his greatest talent tains an office in Manhattan, may well be the more subtle that I can spend half of the year when he is not on the road, one of twisting serious Schickele spends most of his music’s conventions in ways composing,” Schickele says. time in upstate New York that uncover their comic with his wife, Susan Sindall, underside,” wrote New York a poet and occasional collabora- Times critic Michael Kimmel- tor. They have two children—also man, reviewing a later concert. composers and performers.) “There is about these concerts On the serious side, Schickele something remarkable in hear- has composed works for the ing an audience laugh so gen- National Symphony and the uinely at an unresolved cadence Chamber Music Society of Lin- or a clash of musical styles, coln Center among others and both of which are among Mr. has had his music performed by Schickele’s favorite tricks.” such artists as Yo Yo Ma and After the Town Hall per- Emanuel Ax. For the past 17 years, formance, Schickele left Juil- the Armadillo String Quartet has liard to take P.D.Q. Bach on the performed annual concerts of his road. At first, he toured with a chamber music in Los Angeles. 22-piece orchestra, “which,” he Throughout the 1990s, Schickele says, “was a very efficient way also hosted a weekly syndicated to lose money.” He pared down radio program titled Schickele Mix. the act to two vocalists and a Now 72, Schickele has yet to stage manager, while still occa- slow down. He recently wrapped sionally inviting guest perform- up his 42nd annual New York ers. “I never thought it was performance and also, to coincide something I could make a with his 50th reunion, performed career out of, though,” Schick- at Swarthmore’s Alumni Weekend ele says. “I would have been in June. No one is prouder of this happy if it had lasted a few unique career than his classmates. years.” “Other Swarthmore classes of But P.D.Q. Bach was a hit, the 1950s produced politicians, resonating both with classical publishers, and journalists,” says aficionados and more casual David Robinson ’57, a pianist who listeners, who were drawn to performed with Schickele at the Schickele’s quirkiness and reunion. “We produced Peter— humor. He even penned The the whole class takes pride in SCHAAF Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. that.” T

Bach, now in its 11th edition. PETER © (“I wrote every word, which I’m Paul Wachter, who writes in New proud of and which is something Schickele has won five Grammy awards—four for comedy York, is a frequent contributor to the I don’t think I could have done if albums featuring P.D.Q. Bach and, most recently, for Best Bulletin. He says he played trumpet it weren’t for my Swarthmore Classical Crossover Artists for his work with the Chestnut in middle school but was discouraged education,” he says.) Brass Company. Here, he toots his own horn. from pursuing music further.

september 2007 : 35 alumni weekend 2007

Reunion By the Numbers 1,657 Alumni Weekend attendees Right: “Decadent poets” from 45 Classes represented the Class of 1977 march in 13 Countries represented the parade. 41 States represented Below, Patrice Barley ’02, 103 Events held during Alumni Weekend Elizabeth Lindsey ’02, and Andy Wong ’02 (left to right) Rain free for the first time in five years, Alumni Weekend 2007— at their class dinner on

held June 8 to June 10—was a beautiful time to be on campus. Trotter lawn GRAHAM

Alumni and guests came out in huge numbers (350 more than last JIM year) to enjoy spending a few days at Swarthmore and taking advantage of the many varied events held across the campus. On Friday evening, most alumni gathered for an outdoor cock- tail party and dinner at Sharples Dining Hall, before making their way to one of three faculty lectures by Associate Professor of Astronomy Eric Jensen, Professor of Music Michael Marissen, and Associate Professor of Classics and Philosophy Grace Ledbetter. Following the lectures, Alumni Weekend attendees were invited to a special concert by Peter Schickele ’57 (a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach, see page 32), who was assisted by tenor David Düsing. Schickele, celebrating his 50th reunion, also treated his class to a mini-concert during their dinner on Saturday night. Saturday was perfect for the traditional parade of classes. Led by the oldest alumnus in attendance, James Booser ’31, the parade was marshaled by Dana Lyons and Bart Robins, both from the Class of ’82. Serenading the parade with an irresistible Brazilian beat was

Alô Brasil, a group that includes Alex Shaw ’00. Collection in the GRAHAM

Scott Amphitheater was a welcome change from five consecutive JIM years of rain locations in Lang Performing Arts Center. John Mont- gomery ’77, founder of Bridgeway Capital Management, gave the Collection address on “Choosing Powerfully Who You Are.” Mont- gomery’s talk also featured a few words by Susannah Gund ’08. Throughout the afternoon, there were events to suit every taste and generation, including seven panel discussions put together by alumni volunteers, a Balinese music and dance workshop led by Associate Professor of Music Tom Whitman ’82, a kids’ carnival, and various musical events including an open microphone session in the amphitheater and a rehearsal and performance of Mozart’s Requiem, led by Associate Professor of Music John Alston. The weekend concluded with reunion-class dinners on Saturday night and a final farewell breakfast in Sharples on Sunday morn- ing. Alumni Weekend 2007 was a huge success, thanks to the per- fect weather and to the many alumni, students, staff, and faculty volunteers who worked countless hours to make sure everyone had GRAHAM a fabulous time. To view more photos of Alumni Weekend, visit JIM http://picasaweb.google.com/swarthmore.alumni. We look forward Above: Members of the Class of 1942 Betsy Cook, Tom Find- to seeing you again next June! ley, Lucy Rickman Baruch, Jacqueline Quadow Russler, and —Lisa Lee ’81 Ruth Wolf Page find each other at the all-alumni cocktail hour. Director of Alumni Relations

36 : swarthmore college bulletin GRAHAM JIM ʻ 57 COOPER GRAHAM PHILLIP JIM

Top: Alumni Collection in the Scott Amphitheater

Above center: Members of the 50th reunion Class of 1957

Above right: A future Swarthmorean enjoys him- self at the kids’ carnival on Saturday afternoon.

Left: Student workers eagerly await arriving ʻ 57 alumni. COOPER Right: Alumni artists who showcased their

PHILLIP work during Alumni Weekend were Minna Newman Nathanson ’57, Walter Taylor ’62, Robin Hannay Nelson ’67, Kaete Brittin Shaw ’67, Alice Zinnes ’77, Eve Jacobs-Carnahan ’82, and Malado Baldwin ’97. GRAHAM JIM

september 2007 : 37 connections

NEW TEAM TO LEAD ALUMNI COUNCIL A new Executive Committee—with members spanning six decades and the length and breadth of the country from Hawaii to Virginia and New York to Texas—will lead Swarthmore’s Alumni Council as it seeks to add value to our contributions to the College and expand alumni participation in life at Swarthmore in ways that are consistent with and reinforce the College’s values. Kevin Quigley ’74 steps up from vice president to president; Sue

Aldrich ’71, Josh Green ’92, and Tracey Stokes ’89 are the new vice ANS presidents, with David Samuels ’89, Joyce Klein Perry ’65, and Albert Kim ’93 as their workgroup co-chairs. Continuing to serve as KOST Executive Committee members are Seth Brenzel ’94, the immediate past president; Sam Awuah ’94, the Council’s liaison to the Col- lege’s Long-term Planning Task Force; and Minna Newman ELEFTHERIOS Nathanson ’57, who will move from vice president to secretary. Kevin Quigley’74 (left) receives the Alumni Association gavel Rounding out the Executive Committee are Jim Moskowitz ’88, from Seth Brenzel ‘94 at Alumni Collection. Quigley will serve national connection chair, and Bill Belanger ’66, national extern a two-year term as head of the Alumni Council and ex-officio chair. member of the Board of Managers. Together, they represent more than 35 years of service on the Council and have served the College in a variety of ways, among Alumni Council in the upcoming strategic planning process.” them as extern coordinators and hosts, Connection chairs, inter- The Council’s new team will hold a planning retreat on Sept. 29 viewers, and book club hosts. to 30 in advance of the fall meeting on Nov. 2 to 4. If you have any When asked why she agreed to remain on the Council, suggestions for ideas or goals that you would like the Council to Nathanson indicated that she wanted to continue to give some- explore, please send them to [email protected] thing back to the College, and “since not everyone can contribute a before the retreat. If you are interested in serving on the Council, million dollars, I’m working on contributing a million minutes.” please contact the Alumni Office at [email protected] or Samuels said he hoped that “we can institutionalize a role for the telephone (610) 328-8402.

RECENT EVENTS St. Louis: On July 14, Elizabeth Loeb (wife of the late Virgil Loeb Jr. ’42) graciously welcomed more than two dozen St. Louis area alumni, parents, and friends into her home to hear Swarthmore alumna Rishi Reddi ’88 read from her recently published book Karma and Other Stories.

Tucson: In mid-July, the Tucson Connection book group met at the home of Dabney ’51 and Kate Worth Altaffer ’52. Organ- ized by group chair Laura Markowitz ’85, the regularly sched- uled and well-attended group discussed Chalmers Johnson’s Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. UPCOMING EVENTS Swarthmore’s Faculty on the Road program will be back in full force for the 2007–2008 academic year, with events in the

BRIGHT works for Ann Arbor, Arlington, Austin, Baltimore, Brooklyn,

JILL Cambridge, Chicago, Denver, Durham, Los Angeles, Min- neapolis, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. Larry ’56 (left) and Marty Porter Shane ’57 (center) stayed with Ned Bright ’56 (right) and his wife, Jill, at their home For more information about upcoming Connection and Faculty on outside Skibbereen in southwest Ireland this past May. The the Road events, please visit Shanes’ trip to Ireland was launched at Larry’s 50th reunion in June 2006, when the first item offered at an auction to ben- www.swarthmore.edu/alumni_events.xml efit the class scholarship was a five-night stay at the Brights’ 100-year-old farmhouse.

38 : swarthmore college bulletin ALUMNI COUNCIL OFFICERS Denver President Erin Trapp ’92 Kevin Quigley ’74 Mary Morse Fuqua ’591 David Samuels ’892 Philip Weiser ’90 Vice Presidents Williamstown, Mass. Minneapolis, Minn. Durham Susan Aldrich ’71 Karen Kelly ’731 Julia Knerr ’81 Josh Green ’92 Willliamstown, Mass. ZONE F Houston Sabrina Martinez ’92 Judd Liebman ’863 Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Geor- Susan Tapscott ’72 Secretary Lexington, Mass. gia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missis- London Minna Newman Nathanson ’57 Thomas Riddell ’661 sippi, North Carolina, South Car- Abby Honeywell ’85 olina, Tennessee, territories, Northampton, Mass. Metro DC/Baltimore MEMBERS 2 dependencies, and foreign countries Russell Robbins ’84 2 Trang Pham ’01 ZONE A Wilton, Conn. Julie Brill ’85 Toronto, Ont. Wuryati Morris ’04 Delaware, Pennsylvania Barbara Sicherman ’553 Arthur Zito Jr. ’81 2 Antoinette Graefin zu Eltz ’013 Mara Lee Baird ’79 West Hartford, Conn. Jacqueline Easley ’96 Wyndmoor, Pa. Munich, Germany 2 1 Metro NYC Kevin Browngoehl ’78 ZONE D Amy Lansky Knowlton ’87 Rahul Bhalodia ’02 Decatur, Ga. Bryn Mawr, Pa. District of Columbia, Maryland, Chirag Chotalia ’03 2 3 Delvin Dinkins ’93 and Virginia Neil Heskel ’74 Jerry Melichar ’00 West Chester, Pa. William Bradford ’663 Vero Beach, Fla. Anna Orgera ’83 Elizabeth Geiger ’964 Washington, D.C. Peter Seixas ’692 Reshma Pattni ’06 Ardmore, Pa. Albert Kim ’931 Vancouver, B.C. Win Ling Chia ’06 Jove Graham ’963 Washington, D.C. David Zee ’073 Miami Lewisburg, Pa. Rosanne Boldman McTyre ’741 Hong Kong, S.A.R. Ana Corrales ’97 Daniel Honig ’724,1 Washington, D.C. Jaime Raich ’97 Swarthmore, Pa. Ken Moskowitz ’761 ZONE G Michigan Loring Pfeiffer ’023 Arlington, Va. Alaska, Arizona, California, Col- Kathe Johnson ‘65 orado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Pittsburgh, Pa. Christopher Plum ’752 Tanyaporn Wansom ’02 Silver Spring, Md. Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Derrick Wansom ’05 ZONE B 2 Utah, Washington, and Wyoming Paris Barbara Yoder Porter ’62 Susan Bernhardt ’833 New Jersey, New York Kensington, Md. Anäis Loizillon ’95 1 Denver, Colo. Jorge Aguilar ’05 3 Philadelphia Ann Cochran Sloan ’64 Christine Halstead ’911 New York, N.Y. Annapolis, Md. James Moskowitz ’88 4 Foster City, Calif. Lauren Belfer ’75 4 Paula Goulden Naitove ’79 Tracey Stokes ’89 2 New York, N.Y. Karen Holloway ’57 Mitchellville, Md. Pittsburgh Patricia Aileen Funk ’062 Fountain Hills, Ariz. Barbara Sieck Taylor ’75 Barry Schkolnick ’801 Brooklyn, N.Y. ZONE E San Francisco Max Gottesman ’562 Los Angeles, Calif. Autumn Quinn-Elmore ’04 Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 3 New York, N.Y. Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, David Steinmuller ’56 Seattle Joyce Klein Perry ’652 Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Gallatin Gateway, Mont. Lorrin Nelson ’00 Rochester, N.Y. Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, James Schembs ’01 Steven Rood-Ojalvo ’731 West Virginia, and Wisconsin CONNECTION Deborah Schaaf ’95 2 REPRESENTATIVES Haddonfield, N.J. Sandra Alexander ’73 Tucson 3 Tulsa, Okla. National Connection Chair Laura Markowitz ’85 Daniel Werther ’83 James Moskowitz ’88 New York, N.Y. Gerardo Aquino ’962 Twin Cities 3 Houston, Texas Austin/San Antonio Rebeka Ndosi ’97 Ruth Shoemaker Wood ’01 Emily Albrink Hartigan ’68 Hoboken, N.J. Maurice Kerins ’761 Boston Dallas, Texas 1 Term ends 2008. 3 David Wright ’69 ZONE C Jan Mostov ’79 2 Term ends 2009. Connecticut, Maine, Massachu- Youngstown, Ohio 3 Term ends 2010. setts, New Hampshire, Rhode 3 Chicago Susan Morrison ’81 Marilee Roberg ’73 4 Nominating Committee Island, and Vermont Austin, Texas Gwendolyn Cadge ’972 Somerville, Mass. september 2007 : 39 profile Poet’s Work Soothes the Soul IN VERSE, HARRIET BARRETT ’45 PONDERS SPIRITUALITY, LOVE, NATURE, AND ADVERSITY.

she won poetry contests while at a private girls' school in Montclair, N.J. A high school teacher further encouraged her writing and helped her get into Swarthmore. During her college years, Barrett spent so much time writing papers and dissecting poetry that she rarely had time to construct her own. She majored in English, minored in philosophy, and earned a degree in three years. When Barrett married, she put poetry aside to focus on raising her three children. She didn’t attempt to write a poem until after her husband died. After that poem, Barrett couldn’t stop writing. “I was so happy that I’d been able to do it because I hadn’t been able to do it for so long,” she says. It’s taken her about a decade to

N.C. get her writing the way she wants it, she says. “It’s a lot of work. It’s a progression.” Barrett, whose vision is limited by glaucoma, has a friend who

GREENSBORO, types her poems. She also regularly shares her work with friend and neighbor Gail Hersh. Hersh, who wrote a school paper on leader-

RECORD ship in iambic pentameter, also writes poetry. He says Barrett’s & strongest poems are those about spirituality. “It is the area where

/NEWS she shines. Her poems flow beautifully and simmer as she chooses each word with great care.” ALKER W Barrett, who has been known to argue with book publishers over KIM editing decisions, says it takes at least three days to craft a poem to Harriett Barrett treasures her friendship with a Japanese busi- her satisfaction. She believes poetry is underrated because people nessman, whom she met through her poetry. Read some of her have to think too hard to understand it. People today place too poems at www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin. much value on material possessions and don’t take the time to think or enjoy the beauty in their lives, she says. Parents don’t spend enough time with their kids, and there’s too much dependence on deas, words, or phrases often slip through Harriet Barrett’s sub- computers. Iconscious, awakening her as early as 4 a.m. She turns on the light, “This world is in very bad shape,” she says. grabs the pencil and paper by her bed, and begins to write. The book she’s currently writing explores issues surrounding “This stuff just comes pouring out of me,” she says. Barrett, 82, time. Last summer, Barrett had the opportunity to discover that writes because she must. “It’s just in me. It’s an inborn force. This is time—with the help of poetry—heals. After losing family members my way of connecting, of expressing my deepest emotions.” and other loved ones in World War II, she blamed the Japanese as She also writes as a way to help others. Her poems explore spiri- the aggressors. “Harriet seethed. For six decades, she held a grudge tuality, faith, love, nature, and overcoming adversity. She draws on against the Japanese,” journalist Jeri Rowe writes in an article in the her own life experiences and observations and those of her friends. May 26 Greensboro, N.C., News & Record. Rowe goes on to report “At my age, your body starts to deteriorate, but spiritually, things are how, last year, thanks to a longtime friend, Barrett became acquaint- so clear,” Barrett says. “The more adversity in your life, the stronger ed by mail with her friend’s Japanese business partner, an English you become.” teacher in Japan who, after being introduced by his business associ- She knows of what she speaks. Barrett’s mother died when she ate to Barrett’s poetry, used it in his classes. Barrett and her new was just 13. Her brother was killed in World War II while she was at Japanese pen pal regularly exchange letters about themselves and Swarthmore. Her husband died of lung cancer 20 years ago. But their lives and have discovered many common interests besides they live on in her poetry. A poem about her brother was set to music poetry. Barrett’s animosity toward the Japanese has dissipated. and recorded on a CD,produced by California’s Hilltop Records. “His friendship opened my heart.I’ll treasure it for life,” she says. Barrett has published six books of poetry since 2001, and she’s working on a seventh. Four of her poems appear as songs on CDs. Adapted with permission of the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record from Barrett's journey as a writer began in the seventh grade, when “Poet’s Work Soothes the Soul,”( April 30, 2007) by Tina Firesheets.

september 2007: 47 books + arts GESSNER, PI WHEN A SWARTHMORE FILMMAKER GOES UNDERCOVER ...

Peter Gessner ’61, The Big Hello and the Long I might uncover as an investigator, were I Goodbye (Hilliard & Harris, 2007) handed something similar. ME: How about influences from other writers, Who knew? It never would have crossed my those in the “noir” genre, for example? mind that my good college friend and fellow PG: Influence is a difficult and dangerous English major toiled outside the boundaries concept for a writer. As for noir influences, I of his creative work as a screenwriter and guess I have read all the classics—Hammett, filmmaker in the gritty arena of the private Chandler, Ross MacDonald—and admire investigator (PI). them, of course, but I try not to be influ- Prompted by real-life observations and enced too much by their style. There’s also conversations, Pete Gessner’s novel The Big Jim Thompson and Horace McCoy. More Hello and The Long Goodbye tells the story of recent authors I find interesting are Scots- a transplanted New York loner, who, while man Ian Rankin and, on our own turf, eking out a living as a PI in San Francisco, is Richard Price, who’s not really a noir pushed to the ethical limits of his profes- writer—but he is a great teller of urban sion when two apparently separate cases— truths (Spike Lee directed the screenplay the shooting of a Palestinian-American girl for one of his recent novels). by her 15-year-old brother and the disap- pearance of a mentally unstable mathemati- ME: The Big Hello opens darkly with an cal genius—begin to unfold and intertwine. “honor killing” within a Palestinian-American Gessner wasn’t available for a face-to- family, a concept and practice that could have face interview, so I conducted one via e- come from contemporary headlines—but a mail. Some answers came that way; others killing for which our shamus, Walker, uncovers came from his publisher’s press package. other motivating forces. Then, imitating the real- Gessner’s novel was inspired by real-life ities of a true-life PI, you introduce a second ME: How’d you get into this work? observations and conversations. Unlike complicated case, which Walker pursues simul- PG: My first investigation was of myself. most mystery writers, he has his protago- taneously, tripping over lines of ideology and Back in the day, those of us of a certain gen- nist work two cases simultaneously. internationalism that overlap the first case, eration requested our F.B.I. files as a kind of including elements of the Palestinian-Israeli rite of passage to determine the extent of ME: How did your work as a PI contribute to conflict. Why did you decide to do that? the government’s interest in our anti-Viet- this first novel? PG: Having him work two cases is closer to nam War activities. One day, a 10-pound PG: I’d like to say it was “ripped from the the reality of what private detectives actually package landed outside my door. The attor- headlines,” but, actually, I began to write it do. Unlike our fictional counterparts, we ney who’d help me acquire the files suggest- before Sept. 11. I’d become friends with my often work several cases at once. It was also ed I go through them, make notes, and corner convenience-store proprietor—in a literary choice. While reading Ian Rankin, determine what had been blanked out so we San Francisco, many are Palestinian I was jealous of the fact that his detectives could ask for more. Years later, I realized refugees—and we often engaged in frank had the resources to work several cases at that this was the “material review” that discussions about the Middle East. He had a once. So I thought why not? I also wanted investigators perform at the beginning of a son who was clearly Americanized. I could to explore how the larger Palestinian-Israeli new case. Around this time, I’d heard about see trouble brewing, and I guess I uncon- conflict might play out in both the micro- a group of San Francisco private investiga- sciously stored some of my conjectures cosm of one family and in the macrocosm of tors who’d received their training from the about what might develop between father international politics. Both of my detective’s legendary Hal Lipset, an investigator for the and son, to draw upon them later when I cases involved families and pairs of broth- congressional committee that investigated started the novel. The actual impetus for the ers, which allowed me to explore these the Watergate scandal. I was fortunate idea of an “honor killing” came several years themes in very personal terms. enough to find work with some of them later, when a fellow PI told me about a case —Maurice Eldridge ’61 and accumulate hours towards my own in which a son became the “designated” Vice President for College and Community licensing. shooter of his sister. I tried to imagine what Affairs and Executive Assistant to the President

56 : swarthmore college bulletin Verlag, 2007. Surveying a wide array of innovative approaches to material technolo- gies in landscape architecture, the authors select projects and materials reflecting the current demand for technological land- scapes and the collaboration between designers, engineers, scientists, and ecologists.

Janet Smith Warfield ’58, Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World, Word Sculptures Publishing, 2007. The result of 35 years of researching, journaling, studying and play- ing with words to describe an earthshaking experience so powerful and unifying that the author was unable to communicate it at the time, this book aims to catalyze the same experience in others by using words to bring peace to the turmoils of daily life. Patricia McGlashan, Kristen Gasser, Peter Julie Berger Hochstrasser ’76, Still Life Dow, David Hartney ’81, and Bill Rogers, and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age, Yale Outdoor Inquiries: Taking Science Inves- University Press, 2007. Hochstrasser tigations Outside the Classroom, Heine- explores for the first time the significance mann, 2007. This guide encourages sci- of various foods and commodities ren- ence teachers to supplement their class- dered on canvas during the Dutch pub- room instruction by moving outdoors to lic’s phenomenal rise to prosperity. practice collecting and analyzing data.

Glen Carman ’85, Rhetorical Conquests: OTHER MEDIA Cortés, Gómara, and Renaissance Imperialism, Mark and Matthew Lore ’88, illustrated by Purdue University Press, 2006. This study Robert Zimmerman, Flying Rubberneckers, examines how Hernán Cortés, as the author Chronicle Books, 2007. From the creators of of his Cartas de relación (1519–1526) and as the popular Rubberneckers and Rubberneckers the protagonist of Francisco López de Jr., this new card game for airline passengers Gómara’s Historia de la conquista de México will turn travel boredom into entertainment (1552), defends Spain’s conquest of Mexico. and literally make time fly.

Ronald Diamond ’68 and Patricia Scheifler, Valerie Worth ’55 and Steve Jenkins Treatment Collaboration: Improving the Thera- (illustrator), Animal Poems, Farrar Straus pist, Prescriber, Client Relationship, W.W. Nor- Giroux, 2007. Twenty-three animals— ton & Co., 2007. This book helps navigate from the quick hummingbird to the the agendas of all parties involved in mental ungainly camel to the shovel-pawed, star- health treatment, to produce an optimal nosed mole—come to life in the late relationship and treatment that works. Worth’s elegant free verse and Jenkins strikingly beautiful cut-paper illustrations.

Ruth Mary Lamb ’56, At the End of the Road: FINK

Reflections on Life in an Adirondack Valley, THUR AR

Pyramid Publishing Inc., 2007. This memoir Joshua Zeitz ’96, White Ethnic New York: © follows the Lambs’ retirement adventure liv- Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar ing in a valley deserted of people but rich in Politics, The University of North Carolina Arthur Fink ’68, Dance. Fink’s photo- flora and fauna. Press, 2007. Unlike typical historians of graphic images from the Bates Dance postwar-American politics, who often iden- Festival were on display at the Chase Hall Liat Margolis and Alexander Robinson ’99, tify race as a driving force in the shifting Gallery at Bates College this summer. He Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Tech- political culture, Seitz instead places reli- has spent the last three summers as nologies for Landscape Architecture, Birkhauser gion and ethnicity at the fore. resident photographer at the Festival.

september 2007 : 57 profile Pet Products Trending Tails Up YVETTE MILLER BROWN’S [’82] BUSINESS IS GOING TO THE DOGS—AND THE CATS.

Brown, whose business is based in West Chester, Pa., entered the direct-sales business for two reasons: She was looking for a lifestyle change, and she wanted to offer the same opportunity to a large number of people. Before starting her own business, Brown, who has an engineer- ing degree from Swarthmore and an M.B.A. from Villanova Univer- sity, worked as an engineer and marketer in the energy field. But the corporate environment left her unfulfilled and frustrated, especially with how it affected her family—husband Charles, a power plant engineer, and daughter Adrienne, 14. “I was miserable,” she says, “and when I talked it over with my husband, he said there was no reason to spend my life this way and encouraged me to start my own business.” Her own Siberian cat, Butterscotch, inspired her to enter the pet industry. “I’m in the house most of the day with her. I just adore her; she’s my buddy,” says Brown. Butterscotch is often a model for the various outfits and accessories the company sells.

ANS “The direct-sales market offered me an opportunity to grow a

KOST new business from the ground up. I also see it as a win-win situa- tion for the consultants who work the business,” she says. According to the Direct Selling Association’s most recent statis-

ELEFTHERIOS tics of 2005, members of the direct-selling sales force are primarily female, ages 35 to 54, work part time, and are married and college Yvette Miller Brown (with her cat Butterscotch) says 73 percent educated. The 2005 statistics also show that the direct-sales indus- of sales of any product comes from face-to-face interaction. try contributed almost $30 billion to the economy. That’s why in-home parties work well for her business. “Direct sales is for those who seek flexibility in their lives, believe in the products they sell, and desire to make money,” Brown says. “A vette Miller Brown knows a strong business trend when she Totally Pawsome consultant can work to earn enough money for a Ysees one. According to a 2007–2008 survey by the American vacation or to change their family’s lifestyle. It’s completely up to Pet Products Manufacturers’ Association (APPMA) there are 74 mil- them.” Orders from parties average $500, she says. lion dogs and 88 million cats in the United States. In 2006, Ameri- Brown also expects to expand the business. “Two years from cans spent $38.5 billion on their pets, and the APPMA estimates now, I would like see more than 1,000 individuals taking advantage that it will rise to $40 billion in 2007. of this business opportunity, earning to match their goals. Five years With this knowledge, a business background, and a love of ani- from now, organic growth could raise the number by a factor of 10. mals, Brown founded Totally Pawsome, formerly known as Posh Pet Under this scenario, revenues could exceed $20 million. However Parties, a direct-sales business that caters to dogs, cats, and all pet the real measure of success will be the development of the consult- lovers with an inventory ranging from fun and playful to functional ants, and the strength of the charitable organizations we interface and health conscious. Her consultants give demonstrations of the with and support through our products and Web site,” Brown says. company’s products at in-home gatherings. Initially, she had some trepidation about the direct-sales market. “We’re a young company,” said Brown, who started Totally Paw- “I admit, at first, I worried about what my friends would say some (totallypawsome.com) in January 2006, “but I studied the when they heard I was leaving the corporate life and going into this market and did the research. I found fabulous products that are not business. But they don’t live my life. This feels right. I’m still build- in the mass retail stores. We offer the convenience of bringing them ing a business where I have to use strong management and leader- to the customer and take the time to explain their benefits.” ship skills. And I hope to create opportunities for others in my own The Totally Pawsome inventory offers everything from a $5 pack- corporation. A lot of time and work goes into growing a business. I age of treats and a $265 luxury bed for pets, to $20 animal-themed have a passion for this business,” Brown says, “and whatever your photo frames and a pair of $990 breed specific diamond earrings business is, you have to have a passion for it.” for animal lovers. —Audree Penner

september 2007: 65 profile See Sanda Fly SANDA BALABAN ‘94 HELPS EMPOWER NEW YORK PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS.

tion and The Goldman Sachs Foundation. She also helped launch a peer network called Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy. In 2003, Balaban took another leap—and this time, there would be no net. After following the new reform agenda for New York City’s public schools, Balaban jumped at the chance to become spe- cial assistant to Eric Nadelstern, regional superintendent of schools in the East Bronx. “I’d been trying to leverage innovation from outside the school system. Suddenly, we had opportunities to effect change from with- in the system on a large scale,” she says. Balaban went with Nadelstern to the Office of New Schools,

ʼ 88 helping to launch and support dozens of small schools and creating Autonomy Zone—an initiative that gives schools more decision- making power over curriculum, budget, schedule, and other matters ERICKSON in return for rigorous accountability. SAM According to Balaban, the early results have been promising. "If principals, teachers, and parents are prepared to accept free- “Autonomy Zone schools outperformed citywide statistics in every dom and responsibility for their schools—and be held account- area and outperformed their own previous performances,” she says. able for doing so—then we want them to have that opportuni- In mid-2006, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein rechris- ty," says Sanda Balaban, now an "empowerment leader" for tened the concept as Empowerment Schools and expanded it further. Empowerment Schools in the New York City public system. “The idea is that those closest to students—principals in consul- tation with teachers and parents—are in the best position to deter- mine how students learn best and to make the important decisions anda Balaban has worked for prominent philanthropic organi- about how best to accomplish that,” Balaban says. Szations, played an integral role in attempts to reform the public The roster rapidly grew to more than 300 schools, and with it, school system, traveled the world, and met some of society’s most Balaban’s role. As chief of staff for Empowerment Schools, Balaban influential leaders. spends much of her time helping schools equip students for an So, naturally, she wants to discuss the flying trapeze. unknowable future. She also remains keenly cognizant of her past, “I’d never done it before,” she said. “A friend and I signed up for believing that the two are directly connected. a sunset lesson. The experience was exhilarating!” “At Swarthmore, [Professor of Educational Studies] Lisa It also serves as a fitting metaphor. The process of enthusiastical- Smulyan opened my eyes to the issues of urban education. Other ly jumping in with both feet to take on a daunting challenge is the professors—like [former Associate Professor of English Literature] story of Balaban’s career. Abbe Blum, [Professor of English Literature] Nathalie Anderson, After college, the suburban Philadelphia native joined Teachers and [Professor of Theater] Allen Kuharski—helped hone my vision Network, an organization that identifies and rewards outstanding of what great teaching and learning feels like,” Balaban says. teachers and networks them with others to improve the profession. Balaban —who majored in English literature and minored in Balaban found the educators so inspiring that she soon rolled up education and theater with a concentration in women’s studies— her sleeves and became one—teaching high school humanities in maintains her Swarthmore ties. She has led Connections groups in New York and Boston. Boston and New York and continues to lead the New York Alumni After earning a master’s in education from Harvard, she joined Book Group. the Boston Private Industry Council, coordinating internships and In summer 2007, Balaban transitioned from her position as chief school-to-career programs for students from alternative schools. of staff to become an empowerment network leader. She supports Having seen school systems from several perspectives, she became and facilitates the work of 21 schools— including 18 middle interested in what she refers to as “educational architecture. I want- schools, a key frontier for reform. ed to identify what changes could be designed and implemented to “I’ve been so lucky to be in situations in which I’m consistently help public schools reach their fullest potential.” tackling new tasks, stretching myself, and learning new things every Balaban spent the next several years in the philanthropic sector, day,” she says. The flying trapeze included. working in K-12 and higher education reform at the Ford Founda- —Greg Forbes Siegman

september 2007: 69 in my life On Rafts

SEVEN DAYS, TWO RIVERS—FRIENDS FOR LIFE By John Tuthill ’06

When you are drifting on a raft down the ning commentary in iambic pentameter, Camp Skip-Skip. At maximum capacity, it Delaware River, three days after the comple- while Brandt practiced culinary alchemy provided a home for 10 Swatties. We were tion of your rookie college season, there isn’t over the Coleman stove. For once, it seemed cooks, cabinetmakers, Army-Navy store anything to feel except untainted glee. Even to work. By night, we camped on the mucky employees, plasma-donors, biologists, car- if you probably failed two of your exams and banks and played with firecrackers around a penters, waiters, and full-time creative submitted a final paper in which you com- waltzing campfire. entrepreneurs. We paid people to draw us, pared Michel Foucault to the proudest of all The third and final day proved less aus- pulled down the pants of belligerent the game birds, the pheasant, there are more picious than those before it. After fighting a strangers, and gave each other tattoos that important diversions to cloud your drifting losing battle with a wicked rapid, we were will someday terrify children, grandchildren, mind. Clouds, for example, arrange them- forced to drag our dilapidated raft to a small and eventually undertakers. With our com- selves into dinosaurs and phallic murals for island for renovations. On the island, I mon oral tradition, consisting mainly of you to speculate about and debate. The sliced open my arm with a very sharp knife twaddle we had come up with at Swarth- visions you conjured for weeks prior, of lazi- while performing some foolish and unnec- more, we managed to alienate some people ly donned straw hats, dissonantly crooned essary task. Once we had bandaged both the while becoming great friends with others. ballads, and the fervent nausea of chewing raft and the avulsed idiot (me), we were We were all ecstatic, all the time. tobacco—those images that distracted you barely on our way again before we were We made plans for a second trip. In the like pornography in the trenches of a great accosted by accusatory law enforcement offi- vast landscape of Montana, our options war—have replaced the stupid prose that cials. Somehow, we managed to get off the were less limited than in the tidy suburbs of crowds the conclusion of a college semester. river with only a small fine for our shoddy Philadelphia. We chose the wild Missouri In May 2003, I agreed to construct and lifejackets. River, assembled our motley crew, and con- board a homemade raft with eight friends I As unprepared as we were for our voyage, structed an oddlyfamiliar raft from two-by- had made during that period of innocent its conclusion was even more troubling. The fours and blue grain storage barrels. freshman sociability that characterizes one’s final sentence of a clever book report might The crew of this boat was slightly differ- first year at college. We were floating a 40- sum it up like this: “Then, they pulled the ent, but with a similar essence and a famil- mile stretch of the Delaware River on a craft raft out of the river and went home and felt iar scent. Each member contributed in char- we had built a week earlier on the lawn of very glum that the trip was over, but they all acteristic fashion. Aaron dealt with permits Papazian of two-by-fours and 55-gallon knew that something had begun that would and regulations. Tev directed construction. grain-storage barrels purchased from a junk- last for many, many years.” Marissa and Jon planned the feasting and yard while on a liquor run to Delaware. snacking options. Arpy devised a scheme to The raft was a predominately abstract Like a delicious Wawa sandwich, my time at throw the map in the river, while J-Will and concept and the object of much architectural Swarthmore was stuffed with an over- Ben diligently worked to foil his plot. I and literary debate prior to its construction. whelming abundance of flavorful ingredi- stood by lazily and felt overwhelming affec- Our modest, jalopy-esque craft was a prod- ents. During my third season at Swat, I tion for my magnificent, industrious friends. uct of nebulous draftsmanship, hardly navi- moved into an apartment with my friends Soon, we found ourselves on the river gable in that it took eight strong paddlers a from the raft. A year later, as the conclusion good 10 minutes to cross a 50-foot patch of of our Swarthmore education loomed like river. But when we pushed off from the an abyss of leisure, we decided that it was shore, the sky darkening above us, it held too early for the dream to end. On a rainy our weight obligingly. night during our final semester, we gathered For two full days, we sat on that raft, to imbibe—and decided to move to Mis- smoking, spitting, and laughing at flatu- soula, Mont. In August 2006, we descended lence that lingered for brief moments before upon 1319 Sherwood Street, christening our being sucked upstream. We flowed along new home “Camp Skip-Skip.” like characters from mythology: Chris guid- Like any post-college flophouse, there ing the winds with his mighty trident; Tev were both transients and regular patrons of sitting at the back of the raft gazing at his reflection in the river; Ben singing along as Aboard homemade rafts, the intrepid sirens belted their alluring tunes from the Swarthmore travelers navigated the banks of the Delaware. Toby provided run- Delaware and Missouri rivers.

72 : swarthmore college bulletin ʼ 06 TUTHILL JOHN OF

It’s like a TESY Hemingway story , COUR again, flanked by stately white sandstone had the sagacity and pomposity acquired by cliffs. We admired the land and did hardly where eight friends the completion of puberty and four years at anything to speak of as we floated through Swarthmore: They would say, “We eat this it. There was some fishing, some reading, drift down a river crap because it allows us to sit in our clut- some snacking—and much rotation among tered teenage bedrooms and enjoy the com- these activities. When the river became too on a raft, nothing pany of people we love.” shallow, we would jump out and walk I came to this conclusion on the second through the cold water to lighten the load. much is said, day of the second trip, as we disembarked Periodically, Ben the bird-nerd would draw and ascended up and out of the Missouri everyone’s attention to an osprey or a nothing really gorge. We climbed through a narrow canyon snarling duck that had caught his fancy. that tapered as it rose, until it was barely We passed most of our time lounging happens, and yet it is wide enough for more than a single person pensively and speaking of the things that to pass. At the top, we could see for miles in had happened and the people we had still outstandingly, all directions, and we discovered that the known over the past five years. This is what landscape around us was nothing but bar- people do when they travel on rafts: they sit, pleasing, and ren hills. and they think, and sometimes they talk. It’s I looked down to the river and spotted like a Hemingway story, where eight friends profound. our tethered raft. It was tiny but hard to drift down a river on a raft, nothing much is miss because we had painted the deck green said, nothing really happens, and yet it is and mounted a plastic chicken on the front. still outstandingly pleasing and profound. reasoning that repeatedly fails to capture Dwarfed by the cliffs and the big river, the what it was they actually hope to achieve. raft itself seemed irrelevant. What was “Why Montana?” people would occasionally We felt like the kids in the Apple Jacks important, I realized, was the leisurely pas- ask us; “Why Missoula?” and we would commercials who were constantly ques- sage of time among friends. I am fortunate bumble through pretexts of work or skiing tioned by grown-ups about why they ate to have passed the last five years of my life or an abundance of hippie girls. Parents and loved Apple Jacks. “It doesn’t really (including seven days on two rafts) sitting, would call and ask incredulously, “You’re taste that much like apples,” the dull old- thinking, and talking to a remarkable group building what? A raft? Again?” They would fashioned dad stereotype would argue, of people whom I love and admire. T sigh. “This time you’re paying the hospital “Why do you like it so much?” And the bill.” We felt misunderstood, like seditious teenagers would answer by rolling their eyes After disembarking, John Tuthill and his friends teenagers who, instead of slamming their at the grown-up’s stupidity. “We just do!” dispersed to pursue their various ambitions. He doors and screaming, answer politely and they would shout in unison. Here is what spent summer 2007 in a neurobiology lab in effusively, stumbling through half-hearted the cereal-fiend teenagers might say if they Argentina.

september 2007 : 73 letters

Continued from page 3 CLOSET SKEPTICS SURVIVED are excerpts from some of the 15 responses “A Taste of Spirituality” (June Bulletin) Seiden received. If they jog your memory, fall somewhere in the middle or beyond the refers to a survey of notable natural scien- share your own recollections with Seiden at fringes of these political parties. It’s not tists who were active between 1543 and [email protected], or write to her at unusual for a nation to have leaders with 1680. The survey found that 61 percent McCabe Library, Swarthmore College, 500 views that differ greatly from those of were devout, 35 percent were conventional- College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081. much of her general populace. Still, consid- ly religious, and only four percent were ering some of the globally detrimental mis- skeptics. The article fails to mention that, Ping Pong steps in policy that our government has at that time, known atheists were severely My favorite memory is of playing Ping recently committed, it’s easy to see why for- punished and were even burned at the Pong in the library. There was an area that eigners might find this hard to believe. It’s stake. In light of this, it is not surprising had large conference tables with a fair a shame that we are seen, internationally, that only four percent of notable natural amount of space around them. I suppose in such a negative light; and I don’t deny scientists were skeptics. The true propor- we pushed two tables together, and then that this is due to the sometimes abhorrent tion of skeptics may well have been much we made a “net" using books set on their actions of our government. However, it’s a greater, but it can never be known, since edges, spines up. We bopped the Ping Pong great travesty when our own citizens per- atheists who wished to survive hid their ball back and forth over the “net" using sist in the dissemination of these stereo- true beliefs. thin flat books for paddles. types of the American people. PHYLLIS TEITELBAUM ’67 EDITH GARRISON GRIFFIN ’70 I currently live in Montana and, as in Princeton, N.J. Groton, Mass. many other parts of the United States, the people here have a great deal of love for THE CELLO AND GILMORE STOTT Sleeping Bags in the Stacks their country while struggling to reconcile Professor of Art Randall Exon’s portrait of My memory of the Swarthmore library is their differing and changing views. In last the late Gilmore Stott totally blew me away. the astonishing number of people who year’s elections, Montana swung from red His choice of the cello as the supporting seemed to go and live there for the duration to blue when we elected Jon Tester—a icon in his painting cuts very deep for me. of finals. We're talking sleeping bags back wheat farmer who built his political plat- My cello history goes way back with Gil in the stacks. Next to each one would be form around withdrawal from Iraq—as our and his family. When he interviewed me for piles of books (and always—for reasons I senator. So things in our nation aren’t admission to Swarthmore in a hotel room could never fathom —a roll of toilet always as black and white as they seem. in Boston, we spent most our time talking paper). I found the whole idea kind of Admittedly, the United States has quite a music and my cello playing. depressing and was never tempted to do it. way to go before it becomes the nation that When I arrived on campus in fall 1958, ALISON HUETTNER '79 I want it to be—energy-independent, a in addition to becoming an instant mem- Pittsburgh, Pa. peacemaker, and a true champion of rights ber of the Monday-night-after-orchestra- for gays, women, and immigrants—but rehearsal-chamber-music-and-food rou- “Oh, my goodness!” that doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on it tine, Gil also asked me to give cello lessons The old main reading room had a balcony or its people. Those on the opposite side of to his daughter Miriam., who was a won- around it with small study rooms opening the political spectrum from where I stand derful student. My next student from the onto the balcony. One evening, when the have already claimed God, morality, and family was Seth Tyler, the boyfriend—and reading room was crowded, a girl opened family as their sole provinces; I’m not soon to be husband—of Mary Porter Stott. the door of one of the rooms and about to let them appropriate my patriot- Last and best of all was John, the youngest, screamed, attracting everyone's attention. ism as well. who studied with me for many years. I've "Oh my goodness," she exclaimed. "Excuse I agree that living abroad provides a had the great delight to play music with me! I'm so sorry!" And, red-faced, she wonderful set of revelations regarding John off and on for many years. We revived beat a hasty retreat. From that moment one’s home country and its place in the that chamber-music relationship after Gil’s until closing time (10 p.m.), all eyes were world. However, when you stay away too memorial service. riveted on the closed door. The bell rang long, there’s the danger that one set of mis- ED KLEIN ’66 for closing, but no one moved. Finally, the informed assumptions will simply be sup- Gainesville, Fla. door opened, and a shame-faced couple planted by another. As members of the emerged. They were greeted with cheers— constantly-questioning Swarthmore com- LIBRARY MEMORIES... and we all went back to the dorm. You munity, we have a responsibility to avoid Editor’s Note: In June, we published a call for can see this is a very much dated story. I this sort of narrow-minded thinking. library memories for a project being undertak- guess now no one would be interested in Sometimes, it’s travel within our own coun- en by College Librarian Peg Seiden—an article who was getting it on in the study rooms, try that provides the greatest measure of on “library as place.” Seiden asked: What are and I'm sure the library stays open long balance to our perspectives. your memories of the library during your col- past 10 p.m. KEETJE KUIPERS ’02 lege years? What part did the library play in EVELYN EDSON ’62 Missoula, Mont. your intellectual or social life? The following Scottsville, Va.

78 : swarthmore college bulletin Brushes All Sticky With Words Continued from page 21 with words.” Grant researched the ladder as a symbol in fiction— such as James Joyce’s ladder to heaven and in Michael Joyce’s own work Ladders—as well as the biblical Jacob’s ladder and Cixous’ Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing. Envisioning four large-scale drawings, she asked Joyce to provide texts for a project that, she says, tied together her interests with those of Joyce and Cixous. Joyce composed four poems, the last two during a 2004 visit to Los Angeles, where Grant also invited him to try his hand at paint- ing. She translated these two into Spanish, thus making them her own. All four works have ladders interspersed among the dense lay- ers of word loops that extend in every direction—up, down, right, left, and inward. Again, substrata reveal hints of mysteriously erased text, Grant’s testimony to the translation-evolution of the

work. She confers a distinct character on each work by use or avoid- ANGELES

ance of particular colors. They all measure about 120 by 80 inches LOS in size. Grant’s most ambitious work to date is babel (after Michael Joyce’s “Was, 2006”), the product of an interest in landscape that emerged PROJECTS, during the final stages of the Ladder Quartet. The stunning three- part horizontal wordscape, measuring 80 by 264 inches, consists of MACHINE two slopes, densely forested by word balloons and connected (or In 2004, Grant created nimbus I (after Michael Joyce’s “Nim- separated) by a central valley. In the bottom right-hand corner, bus”), a rotating silver-wire ball of text. Grant’s works at the architectural structures are visible. time—20-foot spider webs of language—were so huge that In all the works, reversed words make the text immediate yet they could not be moved and so were virtually uncollectible. unreadable, Grant says. Drawn with her left hand, they are often shaky and uneven. “It’s to create an image of language,” she says, from becoming like a widget factory. Many artists start to make “but to challenge what our notion of looking at words is—it’s not widgets of their own work, so that they can sell a lot—and the intended to be an easy read.” pressure to do that is unbelievable.” Rather than succumb to gal- Grant’s request for a gallery guide for the exhibit led to a further leries’ demands for many, small, easy-to-produce works, she says, serendipitous collaboration. Offered a “Guide by Cell” tour, she “My response was to double the size, go the opposite direction, sought advice from her good friend Dan Rothenberg ’95 of push the bounds. I’ve been told that I am a museum artist—that Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company. Working with Grant and my work is predominantly engaged in presenting ideas and an Joyce, Rothenberg recorded Joyce’s texts as accompaniments for the experience of language. In MOCA—and with the curator Alma art works they had inspired. Both works and readings are accessible Ruiz—I did end up finding the ideal institution.” at www.moca.org/audio. Grant warns against falling prey to public demands and follow- An impressive catalog—itself quite a work of art—accompanies ing fashion. “Many artists make fashionable work,” she says, “but the exhibit, the result of yet another creative exchange between what happens when that particular style is no longer popular?” In Grant and designer Michael Worthington. Grant chose glossy silver order to create the best possible work for the MOCA exhibit, she for the outside and inside covers, which, acting as a mirror, facili- spent two years working solely on pieces for the show. tates reading the reversed texts. Grant admits that she loves the interaction with a greater public Today, Grant is on her way to having a long career as an artist. that showing her work within the context of the museum has Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Con- brought. Still, she says, her true success has always been and will temporary Art (in Los Angeles) as well as in private collections. She continue to be in the intellectual exchanges—whether with Joyce, is in demand as a lecturer and teacher. Although she is delighted Rothenberg, Cixous, or with any other of the many individuals she that her life has become financially more stable, she speaks with names in the long list of acknowledgements at the end of the pride of the beginning of her career, when her works were too large exhibit catalog. “And there need be no end to that,” she says. “No to be economically profitable: “I always protected my art practice roof—just limitless.”T

september 2007 : 79 Q + A W h e r e C a n W e G o W i t h o u t R e a s o n ?

By Jeffrey Lott

When we spoke in July with Braulio Muñoz, As both a social theorist and an immigrant, How do you see yourself as a teacher? the Eugene M. Lang Research Professor of why do you think there’s such a disturbance in I teach social theory the old-fashioned way. I Sociology, he described his recent visit to American society about immigration? don’t patronize students. I don’t water Lake Titicaca and Bolivia. It’s the site of the America has always been like this—as each things down. We read the primary Tiwanaku culture, one of the oldest pre- succeeding new group has been accepted, sources—the thinkers themselves. I don’t Columbian civilizations on the continent. they have tried to seal America's borders. lecture; I lead discussions. When the stu- He told me that his mother “is my connec- What’s new is the controversy over lan- dents get lost, I bring them back. If you read tion to this pre-Columbian world.” guage. Unlike other cultures, Americans the primary sources, you have to separate Born in Peru, Muñoz received a B.A. in have always been unwilling to learn, or even the wheat from the chaff by yourself. Stu- sociology from the University of Rhode tolerate, other peoples’ languages. We’re dents like that because, at the end of the Island in 1973 and, in quick succession, a interested in the free flow of goods and process, they can use these theories to their master’s and Ph.D. from the University of services but not in the free flow of people. own ends. Pennsylvania. He has taught at Swarthmore It’s fear of the other—and ignorance. since 1978. Anything else your students should know? Muñoz teaches social theory, social phi- Is classic liberalism still a force in today’s world? I appreciate the beauty of a well-reasoned losophy, sociology of culture, and courses on It’s in trouble. Liberal democratic values argument. Latin American society, culture, and litera- were originally grounded in the enlighten- ture. He recently published his second ment’s universal claims, such as the objectiv- As a novelist, which authors have been major novel, The Peruvian Notebooks (University of ity of reason and the idea of God making all influences? Arizona Press, 2006)—his first work of fic- of us equal. The world is very skeptical of Kafka, for his ability to make the unbeliev- tion written in English. He is currently claims that can’t be universally accepted able appear common; Borges, for his deft, working on two academic books and anoth- across various cultures. Liberalism suffers economical use of Spanish; Juan Rulfo, er novel. We started with a question about from this. A society’s cultural values cannot whose one small book Pedro Paramo uses his sense of place. be democratically chosen, and it’s difficult to the language of the common people to talk claim any universal values that might be about great things; and Flaubert. I continue What’s the first thing that comes to mind when acceptable to everyone. to read Flaubert for his brilliant use of I say “home”? French. Community—my community of scholars, Is the United States still a democratic society? whether here or Paris or Rome or Lima. My In general, yes; de Tocqueville was right. It’s A reviewer wrote that The Peruvian Note- identity as a Swarthmore professor is both one of the most democratic countries books “takes the redundancy of a standard local and international. But had I been a around. But we don’t deal with the world immigration story and twists it with a postmod- peasant, the first thing to come to mind democratically. Our foreign policy caters to ern approach.” Can you explain postmodernism? would still have been community. interests, not values. A dangerous anti-dem- In literature, to be postmodern means to ocratic distinction has arisen between our have a nonlinear perspective. Time and What about “heaven”? political leadership and the underlying egal- space are presented as fractured because Understanding—the ability to recognize itarian ethos of the American people. there is recognition that there is no objec- value in difference. Heaven would be a tive and universal way to represent the place where there is understanding across What’s the most important thing for a student to world. This also means that there is a ques- difference. learn during four years at Swarthmore? tioning of the voices that present the world That there are no problems that he or she as neatly organized along clear-cut cate- Are you a religious person? cannot attempt to solve. Nothing is so gories such as good and evil or black and Kant, who clarified for us the idea of reason, intractable that it is beyond understanding. white. As for The Peruvian Notebooks, I want- said that it’s rational to strive for communi- But you must approach the world with ed my readers to think as they read it. I tried ty. I am a rational being. Therefore, if reli- humility and honesty. Teaching social theory to present my protagonist as a multidimen- gion’s highest purpose is understanding the has shown me that if you dedicate time, sional character, avoiding the Horatio Alger other and the creation of community, then patience, and honesty, you’ll get through. stereotype and its opposite, the drug-run- being religious is also a form of reason. ning criminal. It is not an easy book. Have Does that answer your question? you read it? T

80 : swarthmore college bulletin B r a u l i o M u ñ o z t e a c h e s s o c i a l t h e o r y t h e o l d - f a s h i o n e d w a y — h e d o e s n ’ t w a t e r t h i n g s d o w n .

JIM GRAHAM TRAVEL with SWARTHMORE

For almost 30 years, the Swarthmore Alumni College Abroad Program has combined education and travel to provide alumni, parents, and friends with opportunities to explore with and learn from distinguished faculty members. Join us this year on one of three exciting trips.

GALÁPAGOS and MAINLAND ECUADOR with Scott Gilbert, the Howard A. Schneiderman Professor of Biology March 18–25, 2008

Join us on a voyage of discovery as we explore this fascinating TUSCANY, ITALY archipelago teeming with wildlife with Robert DuPlessis, the Isaac and unique ecosystems. Mainland H. Clothier Professor of History Ecuador includes the colorful Andean and International Relations market of Otavalo and the colonial Oct. 11–18, 2008 churches of Quito. The heart of Siena’s Old Town will be our home for a week as we immerse ourselves in the area’s beauty and FAMILY DINOSAUR ADVENTURE history, including visits to Florence, COLORADO the Chianti region, San Gimignano, Faculty to be announced and Montalcino. Summer 2008

Vacation in red-rock country while learning about a subject children SWARTHMORE never tire of—the mysterious dinosaur. We’ll dig beside scientists ALUMNI in an active quarry, raft down the COLLEGE ABROAD Colorado River, hike the Colorado National Monument, and prospect for To learn more about these programs, call the plant and animal fossils in the Alumni College Abroad office toll free at (800) Douglas Pass. 789-9738, e-mail [email protected], or visit the Alumni College Abroad Web site at www.swarthmore.edu/alumni_travel.xml